April 29, 2008
Box Score
DOVER, Del. - Navy baseball head coach Paul Kostacopoulos earned his 600th career victory and team captain Thomas Hamilton (Sr./Houston, Texas) broke the single-season hits record in a 17-5 win over Delaware State at Soldier Field on Tuesday afternoon.
Kostacopoulos, in his 19th season as a head coach, owns a career record of 600-394-3, good for a .603 winning percentage. The Navy skipper improved his record to 96-62-1, a .607 winning percentage, since taking over the Midshipmen since the start of the 2006 campaign.
"When you coach in a lot of games, you are going to pick up a few wins," stated Navy head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "Honestly, I am pretty sure I didn't hit, pitch or field in any of those wins. It's truly a team effort.
"Today was a good day for us. We had many guys that hadn't played much this year, but hung in there, and took advantage of their opportunity. Whenever you get efforts like that, it's a great day for the team and the coaching staff."
Hamilton went 4-for-6 on Tuesday to up his season base hit total to 73, breaking the previous school record of 71 set by Andy Loferski during the 1983 season. Hamilton also scored twice and knocked in a pair of runs to improve his batting average to .380 on the year.
"Getting 73 hits in a season is an incredible feat," said Kostacopoulos. "It really tells a lot about how he approaches every single game. In the order every game, he works hard and never takes a day off. He works at every at bat and gets rewarded for it. He is truly a great example of a guy that comes to play every day. I couldn't be happier for him."
"It's quite an honor to be involved in a record like this," Hamilton said. "We have an outstanding lineup and the top of the order has really produced, which has allowed me to see more fastballs. This is a testament to our coaching staff and a culmination of the last-three years. Records were made to be broken. I am sure that there are guys in our lineup that have the opportunity to break this one."
Behind Hamilton's record-setting performance, Navy (29-21) out-hit Delaware State (15-26), 23-11. The 23 base knocks by the Midshipmen were one shy of tying the team's best performance of the season, which came at Maryland-Eastern Shore on March 13. Tuesday's performance at the plate also increased the team's hit total to 532 on the year, breaking the program record of 525 set by the 2006 squad.
In addition to Hamilton, seven other Midshipmen recorded multi-hit efforts on Tuesday. Mike Guadagnini (Fr./Virginia Beach, Va.) tied the Navy freshman home run record with his fifth round-tripper of the year in a 3-for-7 showing at the plate. Michael Speciale (So./Pearland, Texas) belted his ninth long ball of the year, third-most in school history, and his sixth triple, fourth-most in program history, to finish the day 3-for-5 with four runs scored. Speciale's extended his total bases mark to 123 on the year, the highest total in school history.
Jeff Bland smacked his third home run of the year to end the day 3-for-6 at the dish with three RBIs. JD Melton (So./Myrtle Beach, S.C.), in his appearance at the plate since the 2007 season, went 3-for-6 with three RBIs. Renaldo Hollins (Sr./Virginia Beach, Va.), Mark Guadagnini (Sr./Virginia Beach, Va.) and Eddie Diaz (Fr./North Myrtle Beach, S.C.) each collected two base knocks, while Matt Burch (Fr./Leesburg, Va.) went 1-for-4 with two walks in his collegiate debut.
Navy starter Wes Olson (Fr./Indianapolis, Ind.) posted his third-straight solid performance to improve to 2-1 on the year. He threw 5.1 innings of six-hit baseball with two walks and six strikeouts. Southpaw reliever Sam Long (Fr./Newnan, Ga.) fanned four and walked none in three innings of shutout work to earn his first-career save.
"Wes gave us another quality start, getting us into the sixth inning for the third-straight outing," stated Kostacopoulos. "This is something we can really build off of going towards the future."
Navy and Delaware State each scored a run in the first before the Mids scored twice in the third, fourth and fifth innings to grab a lead it would not relinquish. Bland belted a two-run blast over the fence in left in third, followed by a Speciale two-run shot over the left-centerfield wall one inning later.
The Hornets began to chip away at the lead, scoring once in the fifth and three times in the seventh to pull within two at 7-5. That would be as close as they could get, as Navy's offense erupted for 10 runs on 12 hits and sent 20 batters to the plate over the final-two innings of play.
The Midshipmen recorded five-consecutive base hits to start the eighth and had the first-six batters of the ninth - five hits and one walk - reach base safely in the ninth. Ten of those 11 base runners came around to score.
The Midshipmen will close out regular season play with a three-game home series against New York Tech, starting on Saturday with a 4 p.m. first pitch. Live stats for all of Navy's home games are available via GameTracker on www.NavySports.com(.)
