March 14, 2007
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Mount St. Mary's crossed the plate 12 times after the fifth inning as the Navy baseball team fell, 18-3, to the Mount at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. The loss snaps Navy's winning streak at three games and drops its record to 13-6, while the Mount won their fourth in a row to up their mark to 7-9.
"We were beat in every facet of the game today," stated Navy head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "The key for us now is to bounce back tomorrow against Buffalo. We need to focus on tomorrow's game and get back in the right direction."
Mount St. Mary's jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, as Ryan Murray belted a three-run home run to left after back-to-back infield singles with two outs.
Navy would cut the deficit to two in the second inning, as freshman Mike Hoosier (Pomona, N.Y.) legged out an infield single with two outs to score junior Thomas Hamilton (Houston, Texas).
The Mount extended their lead with a three-run fifth, but Navy came back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to remain within three runs at 6-3. Junior Mitch Harris (Mt. Holly, N.C.) and Hamilton provided back-to-back RBI-groundouts to cut into the deficit.
However, Mount St. Mary's answered with three runs in the sixth, one in the eighth and eight in the ninth inning to pull away from the Midshipmen.
Navy freshman southpaw Yale Eckert (La Selva Beach, Calif.) was tagged for the loss in his first-collegiate start, as he allowed five hits and five runs, four of which were earned, over four-plus innings with one walk and two strikeouts. The Midshipmen relied upon seven pitchers in Wednesday's contest, four of whom were making their first appearance of the season.
"Yale did a good job for his first-career start," said Kostacopoulos. "He gave up the two infield hits then the home run in the first, but really settled down afterwards and pitched decent."
Freshman Michael Speciale (Pearland, Texas) reached base safely in all four of his plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a walk. Junior Renaldo Hollins (Virginia Beach, Va.) went 2-for-4 with a run scored on the afternoon.
Bucky Kosyk earned the win for Mount St. Mary's, as he scattered seven hits and three runs over six innings on the hill. The Mount's top-five hitters in the order combined to go 11-for-23 on the day with 13 runs scored and 13 runs batted in.
The Midshipmen return to action tomorrow with a 12 noon first pitch against Buffalo at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium in Annapolis. Navy defeated Buffalo, 7-0, in their first meeting of the year this past Monday. Live stats for Thursday's game will be available via GameTracker on www.navysports.com (.)
