The Delaware State University baseball team opened up its home schedule with a 1-0 win over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Bob Reed Field.
Sophomore pitcher Evan Harris tossed six innings of no-hit baseball in his first win of the season. Harris faced trouble early on after walking the bases loaded in the top of the second, he responded by getting the next batter out on strikes and ended the inning with a ground out to exit unscathed and the shut out intact. He wouldn’t walk a single batter after the top of the second inning and went on to throw four-straight one-two-three innings before C.J. Loper came on in relief. Harris got nine Mountain Hawks to ground out while striking out six.
Loper surrendered a hit on the second batter he faced to no avail as he shut the door the rest of the way preventing a comeback from Lehigh in route to the first save of his junior campaign. He recorded four strikeouts on the 11 batters he faced.
“It’s our first home game so we were excited to come out and play and we wanted to come out and get our first win. I personally felt good, through the first three innings I had some location issues but by the fourth inning I really settled in and that’s when I started to feel it. Seeing CJ come in and shut the door really felt good, having guys you can rely on to finish the job is definitely something to have in your bullpen. We see a lot of potential in ourselves so while it’s nice to start the home series off with a win, we know we’re not done yet and we’re as excited to get back to work tomorrow” – Evan Harris on his outing on the mound.
Alan Alonso drove in the game’s lone run by way of a single to left field that scored Mike Worthington.
Worthington and Trey Paige paced the offensive effort with a pair of hits each. Paige has hit safely in the first five games of the year. Krew Bouldin drew two walks from the designated hitter position. “What a great way to open up downtown, we’re always talking about pitching and defense winning championships. Harris and Loper did an amazing job on the mound today.
We had them set up to split today’s game and it ended up being a pitchers duel. Rettig did an amazing job for Lehigh and you have to tip your cap to him but overall, it was a great way to start the series at a new facility.” – Head Coach JP Blandin on the Hornets’ performace and win this afternoon.