G1-Box Score | G2-Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy baseball team dropped a pair of games on Saturday versus Central Connecticut State at Max Bishop Stadium. In a hard-fought and tight game one, the Blue Devils (3-2) came out on top by a score of 3-2 before a host of fielding miscues plagued the Mids (6-3) in a 9-2 defeat in game two.

"The first game was a good ballgame at 3-2," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "It was a tight seven-inning game. It was a good, solid game. In the second game, we just didn't play well at all in any facet. We didn't play any defense, we didn't hit and we didn't pitch. Give credit to them for putting pressure on us and making us make plays that we were not making today. That was today in a nutshell."

Nick Paglialonga (Jr., Lake Forest, Calif.), Luke Gillingham (Sr., Coronado, Calif.), Travis Blue (Jr., Orange, Calif.) and Logan Knowles (So., Port Orchard, Wash.) highlighted the efforts of Navy on Saturday. Paglialonga gave the Mids 15 innings of stellar defense behind the plate. As the team's catcher, Paglialonga was involved in four caught stealing putouts, two plays at the plate and one pickoff.

"Nick played very well today and he continues to play very well this season," said Kostacopoulos. "He's really doing a great job and just needs to keep going out there. He and the pitchers have done a great job of controlling our opponent's running game, they keep runners close and he gets rid of the ball really quick."

On the mound, Gillingham hurled a complete game in the first contest of the day with six strikeouts over seven innings.

Offensively, Blue recorded a team-high two hits over the doubleheader as he had a double in game one and a single in game two. Knowles left his mark on the first game with an inside the park home run; the second of his young career as a Midshipmen.

The first game on Saturday began ominously with a leadoff walk to CCSU's Tyler Coleman. The danger was quickly averted with a strong pop-up and hard strike thrown from behind the plate by Paglialonga to Blue covering on second. After both teams ended up with zeroes on the scoreboard in the first, the Blue Devils broke through in the top of the second inning with back-to-back two-out doubles by Matt Martinez and Connor Fitzsimons.

Down 1-0, Blue attempted the get the Mids back even with a one-out double to center field, but his effort would go for naught as the Blue Devils' starting pitcher Andrew Hinckley retired the next two batters.

CCSU extended its lead to 3-0 in the top of the third with RBIs by Ryan Costello and Dylan Maher. A leadoff walk to Knowles in the bottom of the frame turned into Navy's first run of the game when he came into score on a Stephen Born (So., Strafford, Pa.) ground out to second base.

With the score 3-1 after three innings, Gillingham was able to settle in a bit and faced just one batter over the minimum for the final four frames. Three strikeouts and a second 2-6 caught stealing putout by Paglialonga helped Gillingham during the second half of his start.

Knowles tightened the game to its final margin of one at 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning as the speedy third baseman shot a low line drive towards CCSU's right fielder, who dove in an attempt to make the out, but came up short, thereby allowing the ball to roll to the wall and give Knowles the necessary time to round the bases for an inside the park home run.

A pair of two-out pinch-hit singles by Scott Koscho (Fr., Trafford, Pa.) and Adrian Chinnery (Jr., Wilmington, Del.) gave the Mids one final glimmer of hope in the bottom of the seventh, but Hinckley finished off his own complete game with one final out, a grounder to second base.

For the game, CCSU outhit Navy, 7-6 with six different Mids recording base hits. Hinckley earned the victory for the Blue Devils, while Gillingham took the loss for the Mids. Both pitchers hurled complete games.

"Luke struggled a little bit early, but at the same he threw a complete game and gave us a chance to win by only letting up three runs," said Kostacopoulos. "He just need to work on the beginning parts of games as they've been a little bit of a challenge for him through his first three starts, but I think as the season goes on we'll get better and better there."

In Saturday's second contest, Navy jumped out early on CCSU's starting pitcher Brandon Fox in the first inning as the team manufactured two runs. A leadoff walk to Robert Currie (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.) turned into the Mids' first run when the Blue Devils' right fielder, Ken Wright, misplayed a single by Blue. After Born moved Blue from second to third on a deep fly ball to center field, the shortstop came in to score on an RBI ground out by Connor Deneen (Sr., Tustin, Calif.).

The 2-0 advantage for Navy would be short lived as CCSU plated three runs on four hits and two errors in the top of the second. After a scoreless three-up, three-down inning by the Mids' starter George Coughlin (Jr., Arvada, Colo.) in the third, the Blue Devils were back at it in the fourth with four more runs; this time on three hits and two errors. Hinckley, the DH in game two, came through with the big hit in the fourth with a two-out, two-RBI double to center field.

After his early hiccup against the Mids in the first inning, Fox was dialed in for innings two through six with just one hit and one walk against, both in the sixth inning.

CCSU was able to extend its 7-2 lead to the eventual final score of 9-2 with single runs in the fifth and eighth innings.

For the game, the Blue Devils outhit the Mids, 15-3. Fox earned his first victory of the season with six innings pitched, while Coughlin got the loss with a final line of 3.2 innings, eight hits, seven runs (one earned) and two strikeouts. As the long-reliever, Kyle Condry (Jr., Highland Village, Texas) tossed 4.1 innings of six-hit ball with two runs allowed and two strikeouts.

"I thought Kyle threw the ball well today, which was good to see after not as good of an outing as he would've liked last Sunday against Air Force," said Kostacopoulos.

Navy and Central Connecticut will complete their three-game series on Sunday with a 12 p.m. first pitch at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.