Final Stats

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- The Navy baseball team fell in two one-run ball games on Sunday at Lehigh. In a day where offense was at a premium, the Mountain Hawks (15-23, 9-7 PL) won game one, 3-2 and game two, 5-4 over the Mids (29-15, 10-6 PL). One day after collecting 28 hits off of Lehigh pitching, Navy was held to nine total hits on Sunday.

Required to match their counterparts, pitch for pitch throughout the doubleheader, the Midshipmen trotted out four pitchers and saw three of their arms post strong outings. Stephen Moore (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) hurled a complete game `quality start' in the day's first contest before Sam Sorenson (Jr., Etters, Pa.) and Jett Meenach (So., Flower Mound, Texas) threw six innings of one-run relief in game two.

Offensively, Ben McGrath (Fr., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Adrian Chinnery (So., Wilmington, Del.) were the only Mids with multiple hits as they both recorded two hits. Brad Borosak (Sr., Jupiter, Fla.) tied McGrath for the team lead with two RBIs during the twinbill.

"It was a different day from yesterday," said head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "Lehigh's pitching staff did a great job of mixing in three pitches all day and that kept us from ever really have that one big rally inning. In fact, we only scored in three of the 16 innings today. I give our pitchers credit because they hung in there and gave a chance to win. Unfortunately, the results came out 3-2 and 5-4. We've got to learn from today and move onto next week."

Solid starting pitching by both teams controlled the majority of the action in game one as crooked numbers were hung on the scoreboard in only four of the 14 frames in the seven-inning contest. In the second inning, Navy was first to score as McGrath doubled in Chinnery in a brief two-out rally. Lehigh quickly answered their opponent's run with one of their own in the bottom of the frame.

With the score tied at 1-1, the Mids took their second lead of the day in the top of the fourth as Sean Trent (Jr., Sorrento, Fla.), Stephen Born (Fr., Strafford, Pa.) and Sean Kamhoot (Fr., Gainesville, Fla.) all reached to load the bases with no outs. Gutty pitching by the Mountain Hawks' starter Nick Stephens minimized the damage to just one Navy run courtesy of a McGrath sacrifice fly to left field.

Moore made that slim 2-1 Midshipmen lead hold up over the fourth and fifth innings with three strikeouts, including a pair after Lehigh's Mike Garzillo found his way into scoring position in the fourth.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, a leadoff walk to the Mountain Hawks' Justin Pacchioli proved damaging as he would come into score as part of a two-out two-run home run by Patrick Donnelly.

The game went final by that same 3-2 margin. In the contest, both teams recorded four hits.

In the setback, Moore finished with eight strikeouts in the complete game six-inning effort. That total is the second-highest of his 2015 campaign.

In the second game, Navy appeared to break out of its game one slump as the Mids roughed up Lehigh's starting pitcher Kevin Long almost immediately. After a three-up, three-down first inning, Navy sent nine batters to the plate in the top of the second and manufactured four runs. Three hits and three walks aided the Mids' attack that saw Ben Lowe (Fr., Memphis, Tenn.), Logan Knowles (Fr., Port Orchard, Wash.) and Borosak drive in runs. Borosak netted two runs on a single through the right side to make it 4-0.

Unfortunately for Navy, chasing Long from the game would prove unbeneficial as the Mountain Hawks called on righty reliever Kevin Boswick, who kept the Mids' offense from ever gaining traction over his 7.2 innings on the mound. Versus Boswick, Navy totaled just three hits and struck out nine times.

"Boswick did a great job," remarked Kostacopoulos. "He threw his fastball in and out; he threw his breaking ball for strikes and he even threw a good changeup. He had great command and was really on. We didn't do a good enough job of fighting off tough pitches. He forced us to put a lot of weak balls into play."

With Boswick containing Navy's attack, Lehigh went to work chipping away the lead against the Mids' starter Kyle Condry (So., Highland Village, Texas). The Mountain Hawks quickly tied the game up with a pair of runs in each of the second and third innings.

Tied at 4-4, Lehigh scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fourth as Jacen Nalesnik singled in Connor Faust to make it 5-4.

Navy's relief duo of Sorenson and Meenach kept the game at a manageable one-run margin over the next four innings, but with Boswick shutting down the Mids' bats the game would go final at 5-4.

Sorenson went four innings with four hits and one walk against to go along with four strikeouts, but was saddled with the loss after allowing Lehigh's fifth run. Meenach hurled two scoreless frames with three hits allowed and two strikeouts over the seventh and eighth innings.

For the game, Lehigh outhit Navy, 12-5. Five separate Midshipmen recorded hits.

Sunday's doubleheader sweep by the Mountain Hawks gave each team two wins on the weekend.

"When you're on the road, you would hope to split the series, but at the same time when you win the first two, you're disappointed that you didn't win it outright," said Kostacopoulos.

With the Holy Cross taking two from Army and Lafayette doing the same versus Bucknell on Sunday, Navy clinched a spot in the 2015 Patriot League postseason. The standings after Sunday are as follows: Holy Cross 11-5, Navy 10-6, Lehigh 9-7, Lafayette 8-8, Bucknell 5-11 and Army 5-11. The top four teams qualify for the postseason with the top two programs hosting semifinal action on the weekend of May 9-10.

Navy will step away from Patriot League action on Tuesday for a mid-week matchup at home versus UMBC. The Mids and Retrievers will face off at Max Bishop Stadium at 3 p.m. on April 21.