Box Score April 19, 2016 Box Score
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - In a similar storyline to their first meeting in Baltimore on March 23 that saw multiple momentum swings and plenty of action in the ninth inning, the Navy and UMBC baseball teams played another memorable and hard fought game on Tuesday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium. After the Mids (29-11-1) took the lead by a 4-3 margin in the sixth inning, the Retrievers (17-16) came from behind in the top of the ninth to earn a 6-4 victory.
"It was a really good game today," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "I thought we did a good job offensively with 11 hits. Pitching-wise, Colin Brady gave us a good start and J.P. Colton and Jackson Zoch were solid in middle relief. We just didn't finish it at the end, but overall it was a good, solid game."
Navy received an assortment of strong efforts from across its ranks on Tuesday with Stephen Born (So., Strafford, Pa.), Sean Trent (Sr., Sorrento, Fla.), Travis Blue (Jr., Orange, Calif.) and Hayden Spalding (So., Franklin, Va.) leading the offense from the middle of the order in the four, five, six and seven holes. Together the quartet went 10-for-16 at the plate with all four of Navy's RBIs. Individually, Born and Trent each recorded three hits, while Spalding led the team with two RBIs in his first start of 2016.
"I thought we swung the bat better today," said Kostacopoulos. "It was good to see Sean Trent get three hits and then Stephen Born was back on the ball making solid contact. Travis had some better at bats. Let's not forget the job that Hayden Spalding did. He got the start and gave us three quality at bats with two hits and a sac fly."
On the mound, Navy's first three pitchers, Colin Brady (So., Seneca, S.C.), J.P. Colton (Fr., Maitland, Fla.) and Jackson Zoch (Fr., San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) combined to hold UMBC to three runs over the first eight innings. Brady turned in a solid result as the starting pitcher with a final line of 5.0 innings, five hits, three runs, three walks and four strikeouts. Colton came in after Brady and pitched the sixth and seventh inning with just one hit allowed and three strikeouts. Zoch threw in the eighth and put the Retrievers down one-two-three.
The action on Tuesday afternoon began with UMBC taking a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a pair of two-out scores.
Both pitching staffs danced around threats in the ensuing innings until Navy was able to knot the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Born got the rally going with a one-out single to center field. After advancing to second base on a balk, the next batter, Trent doubled him in with a ground-rule double over the right field fence. Trent was plated two batters later when Spalding singled through the left side of the infield.
A leadoff triple by UMBC's Andrew Casali and subsequent RBI groundout quickly returned the visitors to the lead in the top of the fifth inning.
After Colton struck out the Retrievers in order in the top of the sixth inning, the Mids took their first lead of the game in the bottom of frame when Trent and Blue went back-to-back with extra-base hits. Trent led off with a double down the left field line before Blue followed him up with a triple to the right-center gap. Blue came in to score when Spalding connected with a sacrifice fly to center field.
With the score 4-3 after six, Colton and Zoch held UMBC's offense at bay through the eighth inning as the Retrievers recorded just one base hit off the freshman duo. A single by Casali in the seventh was quickly erased as Navy catcher Nick Paglialonga (Jr., Lake Forest, Calif.) cut down the attempted steal with his 16th caught stealing put out of the season.
The Retrievers mounted a ninth inning comeback to the tune of three runs on two hits and two Midshipmen errors. A controversial swinging third strike call that was deemed to have hit the ground started the rally for UMBC before the visitors pieced together run-scoring at bats from Mitchell Carroll, Andrew Casali and Anthony Gatto.
The game went final at 6-4 after Navy was unable to answer UMBC's rally in its final at bat. For the game, Navy outhit UMBC, 11-8. Born (3), Trent (3), Blue (2) and Spalding (2) all had multiple hits. For Spalding his second inning single was the first base hit of his career over a then-14 career at bats span. Tuesday was just his second career start.
Sam Sorenson (Sr., Etters, Pa.) was saddled with the loss as he pitched for Navy in the top of the ninth and finished with a line of 0.2 innings, two hits, three runs (one earned) allowed with three strikeouts.
"We have to refocus and turn our attention to Army now, as we always do" remarked Kostacopoulos about Navy's next opponent. "There's always that buildup to a conference weekend series and we have an extra day with this being a Tuesday game. Now we have to get a few solid practices in, get everything squared away and be ready to go."
Navy will next be in action on Saturday with the first of two days of Patriot League competition versus their archival service academy, Army West Point. Both doubleheaders are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. at Navy's Max Bishop Stadium. Saturday's game one between the Mids and Black Knights will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.
