Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy baseball team opened action on its third weekend of Patriot League play with a doubleheader split with Lehigh. Playing at home for the first time in two weeks, the Midshipmen (27-10-1, 6-4 PL) used a dominant performance by Luke Gillingham (Sr., Coronado, Calif) in game one to win by a 3-0 score before dropping game two to the Mountain Hawks (14-22, 3-7 PL), 9-2.

"Luke was the story of the day and pitching outstanding in game one," said head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "He took control of the game and we gave him enough run support to get the win. In the second game, they just flat out beat us. They outplayed us and they deserved to win the game."

Gillingham single-handedly increased Navy's NCAA lead in team shutouts to eight on the year with a spotless 7.0-inning complete game outing in game one. The senior left-handed pitcher proved his Golden Spikes Award worthiness with a final line of eight strikeouts, three hits and three walks allowed. Saturday marked his second consecutive complete game shutout and ran his scoreless streak to 15.0 straight innings. The Mids' staff was highlighted in game two by a 4.2-inning long relief outing by Jett Meenach (Jr., Flower Mound, Texas).

Offensively, Adrian Chinnery (Jr., Wilmington, Del.) led Navy with a team-high three hits. The junior catcher drew three other walks for a .667 on-base percentage for the doubleheader. Matthew Wilcox (Fr., Los Gatos, Calif.) reached base five times on the day courtesy of four walks.

"Adrian did a good job at the plate," said Kostacopoulos. "He did a good job of following the game plan that we set up for our offense pregame. Tomorrow, as a team we'll need to do a better job of following the plan of using the whole field and looking to the opposite field, especially versus lefties."

Game one started inauspiciously for Navy as Gillingham walked Lehigh's leadoff man, Jacen Nalesnik. After giving up a free base to start the game, Gillingham quickly found his groove and with the help of double plays in each of the first two innings, the southpaw faced the minimum nine batters over the opening three frames.

With Gillingham in charge of the Mountain Hawks' bats, the Mids took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Connor Deneen (Sr., Tustin, Calif.) turned a one-out walk into a run as he stole second and came in on an RBI single to center field by Logan Knowles (So., Port Orchard, Wash.).

Two innings later, Navy increased its lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Robert Currie (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.) to plate Deneen. In the next inning, the Mids finished off the scoring in the fifth as once again a walk turned into run. Stephen Born (So., Strafford, Pa.) worked a walk out of Sam Ashey and came around when Wilcox drew another walk from a Mountain Hawk pitcher as the team's new pitcher, Connor Donovan issued a free pass with the bases loaded.

In total, Lehigh's pitchers walked six Navy batters, while failing to strike out a Midshipmen.

With the score 3-0 after five innings, Gillingham closed out the victory with three strikeouts in the top of the sixth. Through six innings, the left-handed pitcher held Lehigh to just one hit and didn't allow a base runner to reach third. In the seventh, two Mountain Hawk singles resulted in the visitors making it safely to third base for the first time.

In the 3-0 win, Navy outhit Lehigh, 7-3. Travis Blue (Jr., Orange, Calif.) led the team with two hits. Six different Mids collected hits in the first game.

With Gillingham's complete game shutout, he improved to 6-2 on the year and dropped his ERA to 1.62. The complete game was his sixth of the year, while the shutout was his third of 2016.

In the second game, Navy jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Currie worked a leadoff walk out of Lehigh's starting pitcher Mark Washington. After stealing second base, he advanced to third on a groundout by Blue before coming in on a sacrifice fly by Sean Trent (Sr., Sorrento, Fla.).

Up 1-0, Navy's starter George Coughlin (Jr., Arvada, Colo.) kept his squad in the lead with an athletic double play in the top of the second inning. With runners on first and second base, Lehigh's Mackey Price attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but he mishit the ball and popped it in-between the mound and first base where Coughlin dove, made the catch and got up to his knees to fire the ball back to second to double off David Young.

The Mountain Hawks took their first lead of the doubleheader in the top of the third when the visitors posted a four-spot courtesy of four hits, a walk and a Midshipmen throwing error.

Down 4-1, Navy responded in the bottom of the third when Chinnery singled and later scored on a passed ball.

With the score 4-2 after three, strong lengthy relief outings by Navy's Jett Meenach and Lehigh's Peter Moore saw four straight innings of zeroes on the scoreboard from the fourth through seventh. Meenach retired 13 of the first 14 batters he faced with only a single by Mike Garzillo, who was quickly eliminated after rounding too hard around first base, as his only blemish.

"Jett really did a good job and took some pressure off our pitching staff for the game, as well as the rest of the weekend," said Kostacopoulos. "We only got 2.1 innings out of our starter [George Coughlin] and Jett was able to keep us in the game and throw up some zeroes. He really saved our bullpen."

Lehigh scored five unanswered runs over the final two innings to complete the game with a 9-2 score.

In defeat, Navy was outhit 11-5. Chinnery was the lone Midshipmen with multiple hits as he had two.

Navy and Lehigh will conclude their four-game series on Sunday with a 12 p.m. doubleheader at Max Bishop Stadium.