Final Stats

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Navy baseball team earned the outright 2015 Patriot League regular season title on Sunday with a doubleheader split versus rival Army West Point on Sunday. Needing to win one more game on the day than Holy Cross, the Mids (32-17, 13-7 PL) secured the championship with the combination of a game one victory and two Crusader losses. In game one against the Black Knights (20-23, 6-14 PL), Navy rode the arm and leadership of senior Stephen Moore (Marietta, Ga.) to a 3-0 win before falling 3-2 in the second game of the twinbill.

Continuing a theme of strong pitching that began yesterday with a doubleheader sweep, the Midshipmen hurled 15 innings on Sunday and allowed just one earned run and three total runs. Moore was the top arm on the mound for Navy during the doubleheader as he threw his first career complete game shutout with seven innings of five-hit baseball. In the second game of the day, Kyle Condry (So., Highland Village, Texas) and Sam Sorenson (Jr., Etters, Pa.) combined to throw eight innings and allow three runs.

"Steve was tremendous today," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "He was in control the whole game as far as making pitches. We felt like we could call any one of his three pitches and that he'd be successful throwing it. He was really on his game today and that was great to see for a senior throwing in his last outing against Army."

Offensively, Adrian Chinnery (So., Wilmington, Del.) recorded a team-high three hits and registered in one of Navy's four RBIs. Sean Trent (Jr., Sorrento, Fla.), Ben McGrath (Fr., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Connor Deneen (Jr., Tustin, Calif.) aided Chinnery and the Mids' offensive attack as all three players notched extra-base hits on Sunday.

"We did a good job of manufacturing runs in game one," said Kostacopoulos. "We were able to get some guys over, steal a base and take advantage of a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly. We really had to work hard to score our runs today; you have to give Army credit for that."

"Kyle and Sam did a good job on the mound in game two. We just didn't swing the bat very well and only came away with five hits. Even our rally at the end of the game was a scrappy rally. Kyle threw well and Sam looked really good, but the story of game two was our inability to get the big hit."

Similar to yesterday's action, game one of the doubleheader featured two strong pitching performances, Moore for Navy and Jeremy Mortensen for Army West Point. Moore out-dueled the Black Knights' freshman pitcher as he scattered four hits and two walks over his seven innings on the mound. The Mids had a little more success versus Mortensen as they had men on base in every inning.

Navy's perpetual challenging of the Black Knights and Mortensen eventually turned into single runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings. In the third, Travis Blue (So., Orange, Calif.) reached on a two-base throwing error and came in to score two batters later on a wild pitch that got away from Army West Point's catcher, Ben Smith.

Up 1-0, Navy extended its lead out to two runs in fourth with the combination of a Deneen double and a McGrath RBI single. The Mids' final run came in the fifth inning on a Brad Borosak (Sr., Jupiter, Fla.) sacrifice fly to left field that scored Blue.

With the score 3-0 in favor of Navy, Moore and the Mids closed out the win in the bottom of the seventh inning with cleanly turned 4-6-3 double play to stave off a Black Knight threat that saw two on with one out.

For the game, Navy outhit Army West Point, 9-5. Currie and McGrath led the Mids with two hits each.

With his complete game shutout, Moore improved his record to 5-2 on the season and dropped his ERA to 2.74.

In the second game, Navy jumped out to an early 1-0 in the top of the first inning as a one-out walk to Borosak turned into a run courtesy of a double down the left field line by Chinnery.

Army West Point's starting pitcher Garrison Franklin settled down after that first inning touch-up and held Navy off the scoreboard until the sixth.

During that span, the host Black Knights were able to tie the game in the second on a Brandon Lee sacrifice fly and later take the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Mids' starting pitcher, Kyle Condry (So., Highland Village, Texas) was tagged with two unearned runs in the fifth and would leave after 4.2 innings on the mound.

Down 3-1 and Sorenson newly entered into the game, Navy started its comeback in the sixth inning. In that frame, Trent led off with a double to the base of the center field wall and came into score two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Deneen.

Sorenson and the Mids held the deficit at one run over the next three innings as the righty reliever allowed a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth and then retired the next nine Black Knights. At one point during the sixth and seventh innings, Sorenson struck out four of five batters.

With the score 3-2 and just three outs left in regulation, Navy looked to mount one final comeback attempt in the top of the ninth. Chinnery began the frame with a leadoff single. A throwing error by Army's pitcher, Justin French gave the Mids two on with no outs, but the Black Knights were able to withstand the threat and come away with the one-run victory.

For the game, Army West Point outhit Navy, 7-5. Trent and Chinnery each had two hits for the Mids in the setback.

For the series that Navy claimed 3-1, the team's pitching staff hurled 31.0 innings with just a 1.16 ERA and a .196 opponents' batting average.

"The story of the series was our pitching," said Kostacopoulos. "Every player that went to the mound this weekend did an outstanding job."

With six Patriot League games on the docket on Sunday, Bucknell won both of its games at Holy Cross and Lehigh and Lafayette split their two games to signify the end of the regular season. Navy finished in sole possession of first place at 13-7, while Lehigh and Holy Cross ended up in second place with 12-8 marks. The Mountain Hawks will be seeded second in the postseason tournament via a head-to-head tie-breaker. The final team to qualify for the playoffs was Lafayette, who finished at 9-11. Beginning the weekend of May 9, Navy will host Lafayette in a best-of-three series with Lehigh hosting Holy Cross.

"Being the regular season champs is great," exclaimed Kostacopoulos. "That's an accomplishment that you can hang your hat on and say after a full regular season we ended up in first place and were the best team in the league. That's something that you'd always like to be able to say with a sense of accomplishment."

Navy will next be in action on Wednesday, April 29 at Georgetown. First pitch between the Mids and Hoyas will be at 7 p.m.