Temple University Athletics
Solid Pitching Effort Propels Temple Past Lehigh, 8-3
3.18.08 | Baseball
March 18, 2008
AMBLER, PA - The Temple pitching staff, led by sophomore starter Mike Click, allowed just two earned runs over nine innings while the offense broke up a close contest with four eight-inning runs to give the Owls a 8-3 win over Lehigh on Tuesday at Skip Wilson Field. Click surrendered one earned run in five innings and struck out five to improve to 1-0.
"The pitching staff gave us an excellent effort and Mike has been pitching better each outing," head coach Rob Valli said. "The bats came to life late and everyone in the bullpen did their job for us today. It was an all-around good effort"
The contest was close throughout, with neither team holding more than a one run lead until the bottom of the eighth. Leading 4-3, the Owls (7-7) hung a four-spot on the scoreboard and created some breathing room in the ninth for senior closer Arshwin Asjes. Freshman Steve Nikorak reached base on an error to lead off the frame and moved to second on junior Kyle Obal's one-out walk.
Junior Jamie Abercrombie singled to right to score Nikorak, and Obal raced home one batter later on a sacrifice fly by senior Stan Orzechowski. Junior Mark Ortega then crushed his third home run of the season to left field to make the score 8-3.
Asjes pitched a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the win. He combined with sophomores Matt Blackburn and Ryan Thomas to throw four innings of relief. The trio combined for five strikeouts and allowed just one earned run.
But it was far from easy for Blackburn and Thomas as both pitched out of jams in all three innings they were on the mound. Blackburn entered the game holding a 3-1 lead with runners on first and third and nobody out in the sixth. The right-hander got a double-play groundball that scored a run and another groundout to end the inning.
Temple tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the frame on an RBI double by Obal to make it 4-2. Lehigh (10-9) bounced back with a run off Blackburn in the seventh and the sophomore was able to keep the tying run at third with a two-out pop-up to third.
Thomas walked the first batter and mishandled a sacrifice bunt in the eighth to allow the Mountain Hawks to have runners at first and second and no outs. But the hard-throwing righthander struck out the side to keep the visitors at bay.
The Owls scored two runs in the first three innings with Orzechowski in the middle of the action. The reigning Big 5 Player of the Week blasted the first pitch of the game over the fence in left for his third home run of the season. In the third, he led off the inning with an infield hit, moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored when the catcher's throw sailed into leftfield. In his last six games, Orzechowski is batting .393 with three homers and 10 RBI.
Orzechowski and Oretga each had two hits and drove in two runs for the Owls.
Rob Russell (2-1) suffered the defeat for Lehigh after allowing three earned runs in 5.1 innings. Joe Ercolano and Logan Marshall each had two hits for the Mountain Hawks.
Temple returns to action on Wednesday at 3 PM against Penn at Skip Wilson Field. OwlAccess is slated to broadcast the game live.
NOTES: Orzechowski and Sean Barksdale have each hit safely in the past eight games. Temple is 5-3 over that span, with Orzechowski hitting .361 and Barksdale batting .324...Today's win marked the first time all season the Owls have won back-to-back games...Temple is .500 or better after 14 games for the first time since 2004 (8-6)...Asjes lowered his team-best ERA to 1.00...The Cherry and White improved to 6-0 when leading after seven innings.
