The Lincoln University men's baseball team's offensive woes continued on Wednesday as they dropped both ends of a non-conference doubleheader against Mansfield University, 12-1 and 16-3. The games were played at Maplezone Sports Institute in Aston, Pennsylvania.
The Lions fall to 5-20 on the season while Mansfield improves to 16-13. After winning five of their first nine games this season, the Lions have now dropped 11 straight contests.
As a team, the Lions batting just .172 (52-301) during the current losing streak and have scored three or fewer runs in ten of those contests. Lincoln had just one run on three hits in the opener against Mansfield and scored three times with six hits in the nightcap.
In the opener, freshman
Orlando Roberson (Germantown, Md./Seneca Valley HS) turned in a solid effort in relief, tossing four scoreless innings and allowing just two base runners (a single in the fourth and a walk in the sixth). The right handed hurler struck out two.
Mansfield provided all the runs their starter Ridge Walker would need in the first inning, scoring six times off Lions starter
Marcos Castillo (Brooklyn, N.Y./HS of Telecommunications). MU's Tanner Klein provided the offense in the second inning with a three run home run off Castillo and the Mounties added three more in the third to complete their scoring. Castillo was tagged with the loss and falls to 0-3 on the season.
Lincoln's lone run came in the first inning.
Ronald Lashley (Brooklyn, N.Y./Benjamin Banneker Academy) led off with the first off Lincoln's three hits in the inning. After a walk to
Aiden Gomes (Bronx, N.Y./LaSalle Academy), DeVante Parker poked a single to rightfield. The speedy Lashley however was out as he tried to score on the play. The next batter
Brendan Sherman-Johnson (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore Polytech HS), also singled bring Gomes home with the Lions lone run.
Walker held the Lions hitless over the next five innings before giving way to Kyle Jackson who pitched a 1-2-3-4 seventh inning, giving up a leadoff walk to
Christian Gil (Staten Island, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) before retiring the next three. Walker earned the win to improve to 1-1. He walked four and struck out six Lion batters.
Sherman-Johnson took to the mound for the second game and gave up four first inning runs. He settled down and retired the next two batters before having to leave the game and a hard line drive off the bat of Peter Pena struck him on his pitching arm. Lashley came in from his rightfield position to take Sherman-Johnson's place. He got out of the second with no further damage and pitched a scoreless third inning before running into trouble in the fourth, fifth and sixth frames.
The Mounties scored four more runs in the fourth, three in the fifth and five in the sixth to chase Lashley off the mound after facing five batters in the sixth.
Luis Nieves (Staten Island, N.Y./LaSalle Academy), the third Lions pitcher inherited two runners that later scored but gave up no additional runs the rest of the way.
Roberson scored the Lions first run in the fourth inning as drawing a walk. After advancing to third on Nieves' groundout, he came around to score when
Michael Howard (Bronx, N.Y./Utica College) reached on an infield error, making the score 8-1 at the time.
Howard singled, stole second and came around to score Lincoln's second run in the sixth when
Julian Bradshaw (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooklyn Generation HS) laced a double down the left field line. Roberson's sacrifice fly scored Gomes with the final Lions run in the seventh. The RBI was Roberson's first of his career.
Sherman-Johnson took the loss falling to 0-2 on the season. Bryce Zaparzynski earned the win for Mansfield, tossing four innings allowing one run of three hits while striking out seven. Ryan Paige drove in five runs for the Mounties going 2-3 with a double, single and sacrifice fly.
The Lions return to action when they open a four game series against Chowan University on Saturday, April 8, 2017. These games, originally scheduled at home will be played at Chowan.
