May 1, 2010

Box Scores: Game One | Game Two

Despite the pair of losses, Navy still maintains the possibility of advancing to the Patriot League Tournament, as Bucknell was swept at Army on Saturday. A pair of Navy wins in combination with a pair of Bucknell losses on Sunday would put the Midshipmen in the No. 4 seed for the league tournament.

"We've got to play our games," stated Navy head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "We have to take care of ourselves, come out and win tomorrow."

In the opener, Lafayette came away with the win in walk-off fashion. Rob Froio drew a leadoff walk before Justin Shepherd lined a home run down the left-field line after being unable to lay down a sacrifice bunt on his first-two strikes.

Navy held grabbed the lead at three different points during the opener. The Midshipmen struck first with a run in the first, as leadoff hitter Mike Guadagnini (Jr./Virginia Beach, Va.) doubled to right and would score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Alex Azor (So./Miami, Fla.). Trailing 2-1 going into the fourth, Jeff Bland (Jr./Basking Ridge, N.J.) blasted a two-run shot over the fence in straightaway center to retake the lead. One inning later with the game tied at three, Azor delivered a two-run single to center that put the guests back on top, 5-3.

However, the Leopards would plate a run in the fifth and one in the sixth to tie the game and set up the late-game efforts. Lafayette took advantage of two Navy errors and converted them into three unearned runs.

"We did not play good baseball today," said Kostacopoulos. "We had some opportunities. The bottom line is that we need to be a lot more sure with the baseball. The two unearned runs in the first inning of game one really hurt us."

Starter Ben Nelson (Fr./Winter Springs, Fla.) scattered eight hits and five runs, only two of which were earned, with two walks and seven strikeouts over six innings of work. Reliever Tyler Mapes (Fr./Plano, Texas) was charged for the loss to fall to 2-2 on the year.

Guadagnini was the lone Navy batter to record a multi-hit performance in the opener, as he went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Azor finished his game one with three RBIs.

In the nightcap, Navy fell behind 9-3 after five innings before making a cut into the deficit with a four-run sixth. Kendall Bolt (Sr./Stockton, Calif.) led off with a triple and scored on a Jonathan Wright (Jr./Arden, N.C.) double to center field. After a Steven Soares (Sr./Coral Springs, Fla.) double and a Josh Moore (So./Mills River, N.C.) walk loaded the bases, pinch-hitter Nick Driscoll (Jr./Riverview, Fla.) drew a walk to drive in a run. Guadagnini followed with a sacrifice fly to center and a failed pickoff attempt to first base sent home Moore from third to cut the Leopards lead to two at 9-7.

Lafayette answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning before the Mids cut the margin back to two with a run in the seventh. Moore smacked a two-out RBI-single to center to plate Bolt, who reached on a hit by pitch, to make the score 10-8. With runners on second and third with two down, Driscoll sharply lined out to second to end the threat and the Mids would be unable to draw any closer.

After Lafayette scored twice in the first, Navy plated three runs to take the lead. Wright and Soares led off the second with back-to-back home runs to left-center, followed by a Moore double to center and would eventually score on an infield single. However, the lead would not last for long, as the host Leopards recaptured the lead with a two-run second and tacked on four runs in the third and one in the fifth.

Game two starter Sam Long (Jr./Newnan, Ga.) allowed seven runs on 10 hits over two-plus innings of work with one walk and one strikeout to get the loss. Relievers Joel Rinehart (Fr./Kingwood, Texas) and Wes Olson (Jr./Indianapolis, Ind.) combined to give the Mids an opportunity to come back from their six-run hole, as they allowed just three runs over six innings with no walks and three strikeouts.

Curley, Michael Speciale (Sr./Pearland, Texas), Wright, Soares and Moore each had two hits for the Midshipmen in the nightcap. Still, Navy was outhit by Lafayette, 19-12, and committed three errors.

The Midshipmen will close out the weekend series and Patriot League regular season with a 12 noon doubleheader tomorrow from Kamine Stadium. Live stats will be available for both contests via GameTracker on www.NavySports.com(.)

DIAMOND NOTES:
- In other action around the Patriot League, Army (15-3 PL) swept Bucknell (7-11 PL) in West Point, 4-0 and 5-3, and Lehigh (11-7) swept Holy Cross (9-9) in Bethlehem, 4-3 and 4-3 ... both Lehigh and Holy Cross have guaranteed themselves a spot in the Patriot League Tournament, with home field advantage still up in the air ... Bucknell, Navy and Lafayette are all still in contention for the fourth and final playoff spot heading into Sunday's action.
- For Navy to advance to the Patriot League Tournament, it must win both games and have Bucknell drop both games at Army tomorrow ... despite being only one game behind the Bison in the league standings, Bucknell holds the tiebreaker with Navy, as it took three of four from the Midshipmen in Lewisburg back on April 17-18.
- Despite the losses on Saturday, Navy is still 58-33-2 all-time against Lafayette and has won seven of the last-11 meetings.
- With his single in the first inning in game two on Saturday, Michael Speciale broke the all-time career hits record at Navy ... his three hits on the afternoon pushed his career total to 234 ... the previous record was 232 hits by Thomas Hamilton from 2005-08.
- Ben Nelson recorded his sixth quality start (6.0+ IP, 3- ER) in as many career starts for the Midshipmen ... his six quality starts are tied for most on the team with Sam Long ... it was Navy's 21st quality start of the 2010 campaign.
- Navy's home runs to lead off the second inning in game two by Jonathan Wright and Steven Soares were its first back-to-back long balls since Matthew Curley and Michael Speciale went deep in back-to-back at bats at Mount St. Mary's on March 19, 2009 ... for Wright, it was his first-career home run.
- The walk-off loss in the opener was Navy's second in Patriot League play this spring ... Bucknell rallied to defeat the Midshipmen in walk-off fashion in the series opener on April 17 in Lewisburg, Pa.