April 19, 2007
Box Score
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Making his first-career start on the mound, Navy baseball freshman Alec Thomas (Kernersville, N.C.) tossed 5.1 innings of two-run baseball as the Midshipmen defeated George Mason, 6-2, on Thursday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium in Annapolis.
The Midshipmen improved to 29-13 on the year, while the Patriot fell to 18-19. Navy's 29 wins in 2007 are tied for the fifth-most in school history, joining the 1982 squad that went 29-14-1 and went to the NCAA Northeast Regional.
Thomas scattered six hits and walked two while striking out three in an 80-pitch effort on Thursday for his first-career victory. Navy freshman Ridge Alkonis (Claremont, Calif.) came on for Thomas and delivered 3.1 innings of two-hit, shutout relief with two walks and four strikeouts. Freshman closer JD Melton (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) came on with the tying run on deck and induced a game-ending popout to record his ninth save of the year, only one shy of tying the school record set by Ryan Hefner last season.
"For Alec to pitch the way he did after limited work this year is a great boost not only for the team, but for him as well," stated Navy head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "Facing a George Mason team that entered hitting .320 as a team with nearly 50 home runs, this is something he can really build off of. You can pretty much say the same thing for Ridge Alkonis. Having not pitched in a month, this could really be the lift for him."
George Mason took an early 1-0 lead in the second before the Midshipmen grabbed the lead in the bottom half of the second and wouldn't let it go. Junior Thomas Hamilton (Houston, Texas) and freshman Mike Hoosier (Pomona, N.Y.) led off the inning with back-to-back singles before freshman Steven Soares (Coral Springs, Fla.) laced a double down the left field line to score Hamilton and tie the game at one. Junior Bill Maugeri (Edgewater, Md.) gave the Mids a 2-1 advantage with a RBI-groundout to short that plated Hoosier.
Navy scored once in the third and twice in the fifth to extend its lead to 5-1. Hamilton drove in junior Renaldo Hollins (Virginia Beach, Va.), who led off the third inning with a bunt single down the third base line, on a RBI-groundout to make the score 3-1. Two innings later, freshman Drew Lydon (White Plains, Md.) singled in senior B.J. Bickel (Benson, N.C.) who led off the fifth with a single, before he would cross home on a Hamilton single to right.
The Patriots answered with a run in the sixth to pull within three, but the Midshipmen held the visitors off the board for the final three innings and plated an insurance run in the eighth. Senior team captain Michael Garcia (Kailua, Hawai'i) led off with a single and scored on a Hamilton single and a fielding error by the right fielder that allowed Garcia to advance from third.
Hamilton led the Navy offense with a 3-for-4 effort at the plate with two RBIs and a run scored. Lydon joined Hamilton in the multi-hit department on Thursday, finishing the day with a 2-for-4 performance with a run scored and a RBI. Garcia went 1-for-3 to extend his on-base streak to 17-consecutive contests.
"We really executed our offense well today," said Kostacopoulos. "We were able to execute three hit and runs and had a bunch of two out hits."
Navy (29-13, 9-3 in the Patriot League) will head up to West Point to take on arch-rival Army (13-17-1, 4-6 in the Patriot League) for a four-game set this weekend at Doubleday Field. The two teams will square off in a 12 noon doubleheader on Saturday before meeting again for a doubleheader on Sunday at 1 p.m. The first game of the series will be broadcast live through CSTV, as Jason Knapp and former major league player and manager Buck Martinez will call the action.
