Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy baseball team completed its series with Central Connecticut on Sunday with an 8-1 setback versus the Blue Devils. The visitors from New Britain, Conn. led wire-to-wire over the Mids (6-4) and used a well-rounded batting lineup to record 12 hits from eight different batters. Starting pitcher Brett Susi led Central Connecticut (4-2) on the mound with eight innings of four-hit ball at Max Bishop Stadium.

"Today, we kind of mirrored game two of yesterday in that we couldn't pick up the ball and made some errors again," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "Our defense was really costly today with a number of unearned runs again. We didn't help ourselves at the plate by not swinging the bat well. Those factors really made it an uphill battle today, as well as all weekend."

Scott Koscho (Fr., Trafford, Pa.) and Sam Sorenson (Sr., Etters, Pa.) had note-worthy performances for the Mids on Sunday as Koscho reached base twice for Navy in his first collegiate start and Sorenson hurled four innings of solid middle relief after the Mids' starter Noah Song (Fr., Claremont, Calif.) departed early with a stomach illness following the second inning.

In a formula that plagued Navy throughout the three game series, early CCSU runs and subpar defense put the team in a hole that it would be unable to dig out of. After a scoreless first inning, the Blue Devils put their first two runners on in the top of the second before a throwing error and an RBI ground out eventually plated Mitch Guilmette and Matt Martinez.

Down 2-0, Navy responded in the third inning with singles from Matthew Wilcox (Fr., Los Gatos, Calif.), Robert Currie (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.) and Sean Trent (Sr., Sorrento, Fla.). A fielder's choice ground ball off the bat of Stephen Born (So., Strafford, Pa.) drove in Logan Knowles (So., Port Orchard, Wash.) for the Mids' only run of the game.

Strong relief pitching by Sorenson held the Blue Devils at bay for the third, fourth and fifth innings with just two singles allowed. The senior right-hander struck out two CCSU batters during that stretch.

With the score at a 2-1 margin after five, the visiting team pulled away over the final four innings with six unanswered runs and only one hit allowed to the Mids. CCSU's starting pitcher Brett Susi no-hit Navy over his final four innings on the mound before the Blue Devils called Mike Appel out of the bullpen in the ninth.

For the game, CCSU outhit Navy 12-5 with five different Mids recording hits. Koscho notched Navy's only extra-base hit as he shot a tailing liner into the right field corner for a leadoff double in the fourth inning.

Song took the loss for Navy as he finished with a line of 2.0 innings, two hits, one walk and two runs (one earned) allowed. As the Mids' long reliever, Sorenson went 4.0-plus innings with five hits, one walk and three runs (one earned) allowed. Sorenson struck out three total Blue Devils.

"Sam came in for a unique situation because Noah was feeling really sick and we pulled him pretty quickly," said Kostacopoulos. "Sam did a nice job and stretching him out was something that we were going to look at moving forward with the season as to maybe whether he could be a starter. We saw some good things there with him today. Overall, I thought our pitchers actually threw very well we just didn't support them."

In the series sweep for Central Connecticut, the Blue Devils outhit the Midshipmen .330 to .165 with a seven to three advantage in extra-base hits and a 20 to five advantage in runs scored. On the mound, Navy posted a team ERA of 3.96 versus a 1.44 mark for CCSU. The Mids' staff struck out 16 Blue Devils over 25 innings and walked nine. The third facet of Navy's game, defense, was also subpar over the weekend as the Mids committed 10 errors over the three games.

"We'll need to regroup and have a good practice on Tuesday," exclaimed Kostacopoulos. "We're only 10 games into the season so you're going to have these ebbs and flows, where you play pretty well and then you find your weaknesses. We obviously saw some of our weaknesses this weekend and we'll come back on Tuesday and work on fixing them. It'll be important to get our way back on track."

Navy will look to get out of its slump on Wednesday with a home matchup versus Maryland Eastern Shore. First pitch between the Mids and Hawks is set for 2 p.m. at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.