Final Stats

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Navy baseball team earned an important doubleheader sweep of Army West Point on Saturday at Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field. The Mids (31-16, 12-6 PL) defeated the Black Knights (19-22, 5-13 PL) twice to take the final star of 2015 Army-Navy series, as well as keep pace with Holy Cross and Lehigh in the Patriot League standings. Navy won a hard-fought pitchers' duel in game one, 2-1 before using the combination of a few timely extra-base hits and outstanding pitching to sweep the action on Saturday with a 5-3 outcome in game two.

The Mids got strong performances from all three of their pitchers during the doubleheader with Luke Gillingham (Jr., Coronado, Calif.) going 6.1 innings with seven strikeouts and just one unearned run allowed in game one and George Coughlin (So., Arvada, Colo.) hurling 7.0 innings of two-hit, two-run baseball in game two. Coughlin struck out a career-high 10 batters. In both games, Jett Meenach (So., Flower Mound, Texas) made appearances out of the bullpen and limited Army West Point's success. The righty sidearmer finished the doubleheader with 2.2 innings pitched, three strikeouts and one run allowed. Meenach was credited with the save in game one.

"Today's sweep really came down to clutch pitching," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "Luke was Luke again and Jett got out of a bases loaded jam with one out in the bottom of the seventh. George was outstanding in the second game. That was the best performance of his career. We called on Jett again in game two and it wasn't easy; he showed a lot of guts out there. That's really what you want to see in an Army-Navy competition. Our pitchers threw with such great poise today."

Offensively, Sean Trent (Jr., Sorrento, Fla.), Connor Deneen (Jr., Tustin, Calif.) and Leland Saile (So., Land O'Lakes, Fla.) provided Navy with four extra-base hits and three of the five RBIs on the day. Trent and Saile each launched game two home runs, while Deneen had a double and triple on the afternoon off of Black Knight pitching.

"Connor had a couple big hits," said Kostacopoulos. "He swung the bat well. Add in home runs by Leland and Sean and that was really our offense today. It wasn't coming easy. They did a good job of pitching us and executing their game plan. Connor, Leland and Sean stepped up and had good days for us."

In a matchup of two of the Patriot League's best pitcher, Luke Gillingham and Alex Robinett, game one started with a rather offensive tone as both teams had runners on in each of the first three innings. Navy was able to make the most of their opportunities as the Mids scored single runs in the second and third innings. In the second inning, a leadoff single by Saile turned into a run via a Travis Blue (So., Orange, Calif.) sacrifice fly, while a two-out single by Adrian Chinnery (So., Wilmington, Del.) became a run on a double to the right-center field gap by Deneen in the third.

Gillingham continued to pitch around danger as the Black Knights had runners on base in the fifth and sixth innings, but in each circumstance, the southpaw buckled down and pitched himself out of the jam. In the sixth inning, Jacob Page led off with a double and quickly moved to third base on a ground out to first base before Gillingham forced Ryan Levenhagen into a weak grounder to the mound and Johnny Griffith into a strike three looking.

Up 2-0 and with just three outs left to play in regulation, the Mids ran into some resistance from the Black Knights as the hosts had four of their five batters reach base. A leadoff single by Jon Rosoff and back-to-back errors by Navy tightened the game to a 2-1 margin. A hit by pitch of Alex Jensen loaded the bases and signaled the end of the day for Gillingham. With the bases loaded and one out, Meenach came out of the bullpen and made short work of the Black Knights as he retired Page on three straight strikes before forcing a weak first-pitch liner back to the mound to secure the victory.

For the game, Army West Point outhit Navy, 6-5. Five different Mids recorded hits.

With the victory, Gillingham improved to 8-1 overall on the year. Through 11 starts this spring, he has posted a 0.90 ERA and 110 strikeouts over 80.0 innings. Meenach was credited with his third save of the year.

In the second game of the day, Army West Point jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning as the Black Knights sent five batters to the plate.

The Mids didn't allow that advantage to last long as the visitors came back and put up a three-spot on the scoreboard in the top of the second inning. A solo home run by Saile started the rally before the next batter, Deneen tripled to the base of the center field wall. Jack Keller (Sr., Ballston Spa, N.Y.) continued the offensive streak with a single to short left field that just beat the Black Knights' shortstop Alex Jensen, who was playing shallow in an effort to cut a potential run off at the plate. Keller capped the scoring with a run scored via a wild pitch.

Up 3-1, Navy extended its lead out to 5-1 with single runs in the third and fifth innings. Trent scored both runs as he initially crossed home on a two-base throwing error by the Black Knights' third baseman Jon Rosoff before coming back in the fifth with a solo home run out over the left-center field wall.

Spotted with a two-run and then four-run lead, Coughlin was in complete control during the middle innings as he retired 11 batters from the fourth through seventh. During that span, the sophomore struck out four and forced four fly outs. A leadoff walk in the top of the eighth would mark the end of his outing. Coughlin left the game after striking out 10 batters and allowing just two hits. Both marks are career-bests.

The Black Knights took advantage of that leadoff walk and eventually plated two runs in the top of the eighth to tighten the game to a 5-3 margin. The play of the game that ended Army West Point's rally was a fly out to Trent in left field and a strong throw back to second to double-off Rosoff.

Meenach closed down the Black Knights with back-to-back strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the Mids' second win of the day and possession of the 2015 Star in the Army-Navy series. The Mids last won the Star in 2013 at West Point.

For game two, Navy outhit Army West Point, 6-4. Trent was the only Mid with multiple hits as the nation's statistical leader increased his 2015 total to 78.

Overall as an organization, Navy closes the 2014-15 Army-Navy series with a 16-7 record.

"Winning the Star is always important for us and our competition with Army," said Kostacopoulos. "At the same time, we have two more games tomorrow and we're right in the thick of a race that could go either way in terms of postseason seeding."

After six games were played on Saturday, the Patriot League standings are as follows: Holy Cross (12-6, with tie-breaker over Navy), Navy (12-6), Lehigh (11-5), Lafayette (8-10), Bucknell (6-12) and Army West Point (5-13).

The two squads will close out the series with a doubleheader on Sunday. First pitch of the twinbill is slated for 1 p.m.