Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€" The Navy baseball team showcased its grit and stick-to-itiveness on Sunday afternoon in game four of its series versus Princeton. In the team's final non-conference weekend set, the Mids (15-9) were six outs away from dropping their third game in a row, until they solved the Tigers (4-13) and notched five runs in the bottom of the eighth on their way to an exciting 8-6 victory at home at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.

"This was a great comeback for the team," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "We were down six runs going into the bottom of the sixth and then we rallied with eight over the last three frames so that was a really great effort.

"Earlier on in the game it was frustrating because we hit six or seven balls hard either right at them or they made great plays on, but that's a credit to our players that we kept on going and going and putting together good at bats."

Offensively, Logan Knowles (Jr., Port Orchard, Wash.), Evan Lowery (Fr., Williamsburg, Va.) and Matthew Wilcox (So., Los Gatos, Calif.) led the Mids as both Knowles and Lowery had three hits, while Wilcox plated a team-high three runs on a sixth inning double

On the mound, Andrew Sauer (So., Johns Creek, Ga.) and Jett Meenach (Sr., Flower Mound, Texas) posted strong outings. In his first collegiate start, Sauer tossed 5.1 innings and a career-high 90 pitches. He hurled four scoreless innings to start before running into some trouble down the stretch, but the right-hander went a long in potentially solving Navy's quest for a fourth starting pitcher going into Patriot League play. Meanwhile, Meenach threw a season-high 3.2 innings of scoreless two-hit relief and allowed his teammates on offense to overcome the six-run deficit and garner the victory.

"I thought Andrew did a good job, especially for his first start," said Kostacopoulos. "He needs to throw a few more strikes to save himself some unnecessary pitches, but at the end of the day he gave us a good, competitive start and threw 90 pitches. He proved to us that he can do it.

"Jett did a great job getting out of a jam in the sixth and continuing over the next three innings. He was economical with his pitches and did a great job of holding them off and allowing us to come back."

The first half of the game saw an early pitchers' duel between Navy's Sauer and Princeton's Chad Powers result in zeroes on the scoreboard in each half of the first four innings. Sauer gave up a first inning single to Nick Hernandez, but that would be his only hit allowed until Danny Baer came up in the top of the fourth. Sauer controlled Princeton's bats by keeping the ball down and using his infield defense as seven of his first 10 outs came on ground balls; the three outliers were a diving grab in left field by Zach Biggers (Fr., Walhalla, S.C.) a strikeout and a caught stealing put out by Adrian Chinnery (Sr., Wilmington, Del.).

Powers used a similar formula in his control of Navy as Princeton's defense seemingly came up with every groundball that was headed for a gap or was positioned just right to snag numerous hard hit line drives. This defensive prowess short-circuited every one of Navy's first four innings as the Mids collected one hit in every frame.

The scoreless 0-0 draw was quickly extinguished in the top of the fifth as the Tigers pieced together three singles and an RBI groundout to take a 2-0 lead.

In Princeton's following at bat, the visitors made it 6-0 as they chased Sauer two batters into the inning and then connected for three hits and a walk off of the newly-inserted Austin Rader (Fr., Round Hill, Va.). Meenach was ushered in to close out the sixth and held Princeton at bay with a six-run lead.

Down 6-0, Navy took advantage of an extra lifeline that was thrown its way in the bottom of the sixth as with two on and two outs Princeton's first baseman Zack Belski dropped a foul pop out off the bat of Chinnery to extend the at bat and the inning. Given a second chance, Chinnery worked a walk to load the bases for Wilcox. Making his first start since March 12, Wilcox cut the Mids' deficit to three with one swing of the bat as the second baseman roped a line drive double down the left field line to clear the bases.

Princeton was able to tag Meenach for one-out doubles in both the seventh and eighth innings, but the sidearm reliever used his infield defense to negate any such scoring threats. The Mids turned a 4-6-3 double play in the seventh before Travis Blue (Sr., Orange, Calif.) and Wilcox went back-to-back with ground ball putouts in the eighth.

With the score 6-3 going into the bottom of the eighth, Princeton called on its bullpen to close out the three-run ball game. That decision would be costly as the Mids welcomed the sight of the trio of Tiger arms, Bryce Keller, Nick Brady and Ryan Smith. After Navy's first batter of the inning was retired, four straight Mids reached with Lowery starting the rally with a ground-rule double to straight away center field. A walk to Jacob Williamson (Fr., Sims, N.C.) made it two on with one out. A slow roll off the bat of Chinnery plated the first run of the comeback as Princeton's third baseman Ramzi Haddad rushed a low throw to first base and sent the ball bounding down the right field line. Now down two at 6-4 with runners on second and third, Navy tied the game on a series of wild pitches, the first by Keller and the second by Brady. The first RBIs of the inning came with two outs as Knowles smashed a triple to left-center field to plate Wilcox for the go-ahead run before Blue drove in Knowles with a single up the middle. After nine players had gone to bat, the total line on the damage done was five runs on three hits, two walks and four wild pitches.

Now in control with an 8-6 lead, Meenach made short work of the Tigers in the top of the ninth with a three-up, three-down frame, including back-to-back strikeouts to close it out.

For the game, both teams recorded 11 hits. Knowles and Lowery were the only Mids with multiple hits as five other players notched single base hits.

Sauer received a no-decision in his first collegiate start as he finished with 5.1 innings pitched, six hits, three walks and three runs allowed, while striking out two.

Meenach earned the victory in relief to improve to 3-1 on the year and 11-1 for his career. Meenach's final line was 3.2 innings, two hits, one walk, no runs and three strikeouts.

In the highly competitive four-game series between two 2016 NCAA Tournament teams, Navy edged Princeton in the overall scoring column, 21-20, though the Tigers posted a slightly higher batting average at .295 versus .281 for the Mids. This was the 10th consecutive year that the two teams have played in the final non-conference series before their respective play in the Patriot League and Ivy League.

"The complexion of the series changed because of today," remarked Kostacopoulos. "I think it was a success today because we struggled and didn't play with much of a hop yesterday, but came back and fought to get a character win. Overall, I think this was a good weekend where we learned a lot."

Navy will begin a run of five straight road games on Wednesday with a non-conference tilt at Georgetown (3pm) before heading north on the weekend for a four-game series at Holy Cross on Saturday and Sunday. The Mids and Crusaders went head-to-head last May in the finals of the Patriot League Finals and have been predicted to meet again this spring according to the preseason coaches' poll as Holy Cross was picked first and Navy second.