April 29, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy baseball team claimed victory in walk-off fashion in the ninth inning of game two as the Midshipmen concluded their Patriot League regular season schedule with a Sunday afternoon doubleheader against Bucknell at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium. The Mids were blanked in the opener, 11-0, before coming back to win the nightcap, 7-6.
Navy saw its overall record go to 32-19 and finished with a 12-8 mark in league play. Bucknell concluded its season with a 16-24 mark, 8-12 in Patriot League action.
Prior to Navy's come-from-behind victory over Bucknell in game two, the Midshipmen earned a spot in the 2007 Patriot League Tournament by virtue of Holy Cross' 7-3 loss at Lafayette. The Midshipmen will take on Army, who swept Lehigh on Sunday, in the elimination game of the league tournament at Lafayette's Class of 1978 Stadium on Saturday, May 12.
"It's all about taking small steps in the right direction," stated Navy head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "Last year, we got the program back onto the path of respectability. Our next step was to at least make the postseason this year, which we have. We are going in the right direction, but still have a long road ahead of us."
With the score tied at six in the bottom of the ninth inning, senior team captain Michael Garcia (Kailua, Hawai'i) led off with an infield single to short. After freshman Kendall Bolt (Stockton, Calif.) laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Garcia into scoring position, Bucknell summoned Jason Buursma out of the bullpen, who had thrown a complete game shutout in the opener on Saturday. Buursma intentionally walked junior Thomas Hamilton (Houston, Texas) to face junior Mitch Harris (Mt. Holly, N.C.). With a 0-1 count, Harris was grazed by a Buursma offering to load the bases. The Bucknell reliever induced a fielder's choice at home plate to get the second out of the inning, with the bases still full of Midshipmen. Freshman Drew Lydon (White Plains, Md.) came up and fell behind in the count, 1-2, before working the count full and taking an off-speed pitch away for ball four to walk in the game-winning run.
The Bison rallied to tie the game at six after plating a run in the seventh and eighth innings. Bucknell knotted the contest with a one-out triple in the eighth, but the runner was stranded at third, as Navy reliever James Lee (Asheville, N.C.) got out of the jam with a strikeout and a groundout.
Navy took a 1-0 lead in the first, as Garcia scored on a Hamilton single to the gap in left-center. However, Bucknell grabbed the lead with three runs in the third and one in the fourth.
The Midshipmen would answer back with three runs in the fifth to bring the hosts even at four. Freshman Steven Soares (Coral Springs, Fla.) was hit by a pitch and went to third on senior B.J. Bickel's (Benson, N.C.) single to right-center. Garcia delivered a RBI-double down the left-field line, followed by Bolt's single to center and Hamilton's sacrifice fly to center.
One inning later, the Mids took advantage of two Bison errors to take their second lead of the game. Freshman Mike Hoosier (Pomona, N.Y.) led off the stanza with a walk and moved to second a fielding error by the third baseman. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners 90 feet, Soares lifted a sacrifice fly to center to plate Hoosier. Bickel came up and hit a hard ball back to the pitcher, who came up cleanly with the ball but misfired his throw to first, allowing another Navy run to make the score 6-4.
Navy's top third of the order combined to go 5-for-10 with three runs scored and four RBIs in the nightcap. Garcia went 2-for-3 with a walk, hit by pitch, two runs scored and a RBI, while Hamilton delivered a similar 2-for-3 effort at the plate with a walk, a run scored and two RBIs. Bolt also finished 1-for-4 with a RBI and a sacrifice bunt.
Garcia completed the four-game set with a .583 (7-for-12) batting average off of Bison pitching with four runs scored, three walks and a stolen base.
"Michael Garcia played great all four games (against Bucknell)," commented Kostacopoulos. "He really worked every at bat, played well in the field and ran hard on the bases. He was definitely our best player this weekend."
Navy freshman southpaw Yale Eckert (La Selva Beach, Calif.) left with the lead after six innings, but was not credited with a decision. Eckert scattered 10 hits and four runs with one walk and five strikeouts in a 112-pitch outing. Freshman closer JD Melton (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) retired the side 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to earn the victory on Sunday and improve his record to 3-2 on the campaign.
"Yale did a nice job for us in the second game," said Kostacopoulos. "He gave up 10 hits, but allowed only four runs, meaning that he got outs when he needed them. It really showed me that he competed, which is sometimes overlooked, and never allowed that big inning."
In the opener, Bucknell starter Mathew Wilson fired a complete game shutout against the Mids. Wilson limited the hosts to seven hits in his seven-inning performance, as he walked only one and fanned five.
The visitors took a 1-0 lead in the first and scored 10 runs between the third and fifth innings.
Navy had an opportunity in the bottom half of the first, as Garcia and Lydon led off with back-to-back singles. However, Wilson induced a double play and got out of the inning with a groundout. The Mids also had runners on first and second with nobody out in the fourth, but two popouts and a strikeout ended the Navy threat.
Garcia and Lydon each had two hits for Navy, but the hosts were out-hit by the Bison, 17-7, in the opener.
Navy freshman starter Oliver Drake (Gardner, Mass.) was tagged for the loss, as he yielded five runs on nine hits over three innings with no walks and five strikeouts. His record fell to 2-3 during his rookie campaign.
The Midshipmen will wrap up their regular season with a two-game set against Maryland-Eastern Shore next Saturday and Sunday at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium in Annapolis. Prior to the opening game on Saturday, there will be a senior day recognition for the Navy baseball class of 2007.
