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LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Navy baseball team continued its tight hold on first place in the Patriot League with a doubleheader sweep of Bucknell on Saturday at Depew Field. Behind a complete game two-hit shutout of the Bison (16-31, 7-11 PL) by Luke Gillingham (Sr., Coronado, Calif.) the Mids (36-11-1, 14-4 PL) took game one, 2-0 before coming back in the second game and earning a 7-4 victory on a go-ahead RBI by Robert Currie (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.). The two victories helped Navy keep its one-game advantage over Holy Cross, who swept Lafayette on Saturday.

"We got another great performance from Luke with another complete game shutout," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "He was really on again today and we did just enough on offense to win game one. Leland Saile's home run was a key play as it turned a 1-0 game to a 2-0 game. It was really Luke's game and he got the job done.

"I thought we had a complete effort in game two with all facets contributing to the victory. Andrew Bartek was outstanding out of the bullpen down the stretch after Jett Meenach gave us a very good middle relief outing. They both did a great job of getting us out of some jams. They did exactly what we needed out of bullpen. Our lineup had contributions from nearly everyone; we scored six of our runs with two outs, that's really impressive."

On the mound on Saturday, the trio of Gillingham, Meenach and Bartek combined for a 0.00 ERA over 12.2 combined innings. Gillingham hurled a complete game two-hitter in game one with six strikeouts, while Meenach threw 3.0 innings of three-hit, one-run (unearned) middle relief in game two. Bartek capped the doubleheader with his first save of the year on 2.2 innings and five strikeouts of Bison batters.

Offensively, Currie, Leland Saile (Jr., Land O'Lakes, Fla.) and Travis Blue (Jr., Orange, Calif.) led the Mids' attack. Currie went 4-for-9 on the day with a triple and two RBIs. His first hit in game two, an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning, broke the school record for career hits that was previously held by Michael Speciale '10 with 241. Saile and Blue both left their marks on the doubleheader with individual home run shots, Saile's in the first game and Blue's in the second.

Game one on Saturday saw the visiting Mids take advantage of an early two-out error as Stephen Born (So., Strafford, Pa.) came across to score on a misplayed groundball off the bat of Connor Deneen (Sr., Tustin, Calif.) in the top of the first inning.

As Navy fan's have seen so often before during his acclaimed four-year career, Luke Gillingham took that one-run lead and ran with it. Outside of first inning two-out triple to Danny Rafferty, the senior left-handed pitcher didn't allow another Bucknell hit over the first four innings. Gillingham struck out one Bison batter in each of the first, second, third and fourth innings.

Down 1-0 going into the bottom of the fifth, Bucknell put a scare into Navy and Gillingham as the team's first two batters, Jon Mayer and Alex O'Neill, reached and were sacrificed into third and second base with one out. Gillingham started getting out of the jam with a cleanly turned 1-2 putout at home on a flip to catcher Adrian Chinnery (Jr., Wilmington, Del.) on a squeeze attempt on a Tommy Pennington bunt. A fielder's choice put out during Brett Smith's at bat put an end to the threat with the Bison unable to capitalize on their opportunity.

Navy's offense spotted Gillingham an insurance run in the top of the sixth inning when Saile took an Andrew Andreychik offering way beyond the left field wall and into the parking lot for his first home run of 2016.

With the score 2-0, Bucknell's last strong push to make in-roads on the scoreboard came in the bottom of the sixth when again the first two batters reached safely. Gillingham buckled down and squashed the threat with two fly outs and his sixth strikeout of the day.

Both teams got one runner on in the seventh inning, but neither squad was able to manufacture a run and the game went final at a 2-0 margin.

For the game, Navy outhit Bucknell, 6-2. Currie and Born both had two hits to lead the way.

With the win, Gillingham improved to 8-2 on the year and saw his ERA drop to 1.32. He leads the nation in both the categories of complete games (8) and shutouts (4). His final line on Saturday was 7.0 innings, two hits, two walks and six strikeouts.

Pitching dominated the early happenings of game two as well as both starting pitchers, George Coughlin (Jr., Arvada, Colo.) for Navy and Connor Van Hoose of Bucknell, combined to allow just two hits over the first two innings of play.

In the third inning, the Mids broke through first with four runs on five hits. The action started picking up for Navy with two outs as Blue hit a two-run home run over the left field wall to plate himself and Logan Knowles (So., Port Orchard, Wash.), who had reached earlier on a walk. Up 2-0, Navy kept the two-out rally going with four consecutive singles by Born, Sean Trent (Sr., Sorrento, Fla.), Deneen and Saile. Both Trent and Saile drove in solo runs with their respective efforts. The home run by Blue was the first of his collegiate career through 156 games.

"Travis had a huge hit with his home run," said Kostacopoulos. "It gave us two quick runs and then we kept it going and scored two more. That was big for both him and the team. He was struggling a little bit up to that point, but it really turned his day around. That's good to see moving forward."

The Bison didn't stay in a 4-0 hole for long as the host squad responded in the bottom of the fourth with three runs on five hits. Doubles by Spencer Stokes and Mike Korchak aided the attack for Bucknell.

The game stayed at a 4-3 margin into the sixth inning before the Bison knotted the contest at 4-4 with an unearned run.

Out of the bullpen, Meenach helped keep Bucknell in check with 3.0 innings of one-run, three-hit relief.

In the top of the seventh, a clutch one-out single to left field by Currie resulted in a go-ahead RBI and school history. The senior centerfielder's hit allowed Matthew Wilcox (Fr., Los Gatos, Calif.) to score from second base, while also surpassing Michael Speciale's six-year old program record.

"He's been a phenomenal player for us over his four years," said Kostacopoulos about Currie. "Breaking a school record for hits is not easy to do, you have to show up every day ready to play. He had a big day today for us and was making things happen throughout the doubleheader. I'm really happy for him to break this mark. That's something that he should be really proud of."

Down 5-4, Bucknell threated in the bottom of the seventh with two men on and one out before Bartek was summoned from the bullpen. The senior right-hander made his presence felt immediately as he struck out Sam Clark and Jon Mayer on back-to-back strike threes swinging.

Bartek kept blowing Bison batters away in the eighth inning with two more strikeouts to start the frame.

After a scoreless eighth, the Mids added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Two-out hits by Knowles and Currie plated the tallies as the sophomore third baseman shot a single to left field to score Saile before the senior captain hit a triple to the right-center field gap to drive in Navy's seventh run.

Bartek put down Bucknell in order in the bottom of the ninth to seal the 7-4 victory.

In the game, Navy was outhit by Bucknell, 11-9. Currie (2) and Saile (2) led a group of seven Mids with hits.

Meenach earned the victory to improve to 1-0 on the year with a final line of 3.0 innings, three hits and two walks, while Bartek notched his first save of 2016 with 2.2 innings of one-hit relief work.

The Mids and Bison are scheduled to close out their four-game series on Sunday with another doubleheader at Depew Field. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.

**Patriot League Standings Post-Saturday
Navy: 14-4 (Clinched #1 or #2)
Holy Cross: 13-5 (Clinched #1 or #2)
Lehigh: 9-9 (Clinched #3 or #4)
Bucknell: 7-11
Lafayette: 6-12
Army West Point: 5-13