2/9/2002 - Baseball
Navy Baseball Tops Duke 8-4
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DURHAM, N.C. ? The Navy baseball team scored an 8-4 victory over the host Duke Blue Devils Saturday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field in the second game of the doubleheader. Duke captured the 2002 season opener for both teams, 6-4.
?We really stepped it up in the ninth inning of the second game after Duke tied it in the bottom of the eighth,? Navy head coach Steve Whitmyer said. ?That shows a lot of toughness by our team, and it was a good win. We really need to come out tomorrow and be aggressive from the start.?
Jake Miller?s (Jr./Santa Maria, Calif.) RBI-single in the top of the ninth inning broke a 4-4 tie, as freshman Dean Farmer (So./Knoxville, Tenn.) came across to score. Navy added three more runs for the game?s final margin of 8-4 in the nightcap.
Navy (1-1) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Farmer hit a two-run homer over the left field wall in his first college at-bat.
Duke pushed across a pair of runs in the first and second inning to tie the game at 2-2.
In the top of the fifth, Navy team captain Dom Nicolini (Sr./Merrillville, Ind.) scored from third on John Cocca?s (Sr./Whitehall, Pa.) ground out to short. Nicolini came to the plate in the top of the seventh inning and belted his second career home run to left, giving Navy a 4-2 advantage.
However, Duke (1-1) once again came back to tie the game, pushing two runs across in the bottom of the eighth off Navy relief pitcher Ryan Naquin (Sweeney, Texas). Andy Froistad (So./St. Paul, Minn.) came in to relieve Naquin and got the final two outs of the inning for Navy.
Froistad earned the victory for the Mids, while Duke reliever Brian Patrick dropped to 0-1. Navy starter Brian Pennell (Sr./Saratoga, N.Y.) threw four-strong innings, striking out two and walking one. Naquin pitched three and one-third innings with three strikeouts and one walk.
In the first game, Duke catcher Troy Caradonna?s single in the bottom of the fifth inning scored two runs to break a 2-2 tie and the Blue Devils never looked back, en route to a 6-4 win.
Navy got on the board in the top of the first on first baseman Neil Brubeck?s (Sr./Bryan Texas) double to left, scoring shortstop Matt Lukevics (Fr./Tampa, Fla.), who reached base on a double in his first career at-bat.
Duke scored two runs in the bottom of the second, but Navy tied it in the top of the fifth on John Cocca?s RBI-double that scored David Woolsey (Sr./Columbia, S.C.).
Miller hit a two-run homer to left in the top of the seventh, cutting Duke?s lead to one. In the bottom of the eighth, Doug Bechtold?s triple scored Patrick to give the Blue Devils a 6-4 lead and the win.
Duke starting pitcher Jeff Alleva worked seven innings with seven strikeouts to improve to 1-0, while Navy reliever Matt Cooney 9Jr./Mountaintop, Pa.) dropped to 0-1. Rich McDevitt (Jr./Albany, N.Y.) started for Navy, giving up two runs on three hits with two strikeouts in four innings of work.
Navy and Duke will conclude its three-game series tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.
