ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy baseball program (37-15) earned its 2,000th victory in program history after beating Lafayette (19-32), 3-0, in the first game of the best-of-three series in the Patriot League Tournament Semifinals on Saturday at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
The Midshipmen plated three runs in the sixth inning and Noah Song (Sr., Claremont, Calif.) threw eight shutouts innings to earn his 11th win of the season. Trey Braithwaite (So., Winchester, Va.) tied the program record with his 10th save of the season to secure the combined shutout.
 
Liam Lowery (Sr., Williamsburg, Va.) led the offense with two RBIs and he finished the day going 3-for-4 at the plate. Jacob Williamson (Jr., Sims, N.C.) also chipped in with an RBI and scored one of Navy's three runs.
 
"Our offense came from a couple of key plays," head coach Paul Kostacopoulos stated after the game "The safety squeeze got us going and Liam [Lowery] followed up with a two-run single and that was our offense today. But we got the timely hit and sometimes when you have a really good pitching performance it is only one or two timely hits you really need and today was one of those days. We continued to handle the ball well when it was hit to us and that is what it really boiled down to. Noah [Song] was really good again. He had nine strikeouts and had control of the game throughout for the most part."
 
Both teams looked to get on the board right from the get-go with Lafayette stranding a pair of runners on base in the first inning and the Midshipmen left the bases loaded to end the inning. A pitchers' duel broke out and the game remained scoreless through five innings where both teams had just two hits over that span. 
 
In the sixth inning, Navy found its offense and strung together three hits and took advantage of an error from the Leopards. The Midshipmen started the frame with back-to-back singles from Zach Biggers (Jr., Walhalla, S.C.) and Christian Hodge (Sr., Winder, Ga.) and Navy had runners on the corners with a wild pitch during Hodge's at-bat. With one out in the inning, the Midshipmen executed on a safety squeeze play with Williamson at the plate and Biggers came into score on the play to give the Midshipmen a 1-0 lead. On the bunt play, Lafayette tried to get the lead runner at the plate, but an errant throw allowed Hodge and Williamson to move up a base and place runners on second and third base.
 
Still, with one out in the sixth inning and a 1-0 lead, the Midshipmen increased their lead with Liam Lowery singling out to centerfield bringing in two runners and giving Navy a 3-0 advantage after six innings of play.
 
The three-run sixth inning was all the Midshipmen need with Song on the mound. Lafayette tried to answer back in the seventh inning with two hits to start the stanza, but Song retired the next three batters with a pair of strikeouts to strand two Leopards in scoring position and keeping Navy in front with just two innings to play.
 
Song retired his final six batters in order and Braithwaite worked around a leadoff base runner in the ninth inning to seal the Midshipmen's 3-0 victory.
 
On the mound, Song (11-0) tossed a season-high eight innings in the victory as he allowed just four hits and two walks while striking out nine batters. With nine strikeouts on Saturday, he has notched 150 strikeouts on the season. Song has increased his scoreless inning streak to 28-1/3 innings as his last run allowed came on April 13 at Lehigh in a 4-1 victory. 
 
Braithwaite struck out two batters in the ninth inning to pick up his 10th save of the season, which ties him with Ryan Hefner for most saves in a single season. Hefner notched 10 saves during the 2006 season. Braithwaite's save is also the 16th on the season for Navy as a team, which set a new program best and breaks the record of 15 set back in 2008.
 
JP Woodward (5-7) suffered the loss after going 6-1/3 innings allowing three runs -- two earned -- on three walks and six hits. Woodward recorded only two strikeouts during his performance on the mound. 
 
Navy's win was its first win in the first game of the best-of-three semifinal series after going 0-9 in its first nine semifinal openers since the current tournament format was installed in 2008. 
 
The win on Saturday was also the program's 2,000th victory. In 124 years of Navy baseball, the Midshipmen have an overall record of 2,000-1,320-38. Navy is the 76th NCAA Division I program to reach the 2,000-win mark and is the only current Patriot League team to reach that mark.
 
"You really inherit the tradition," Kostacopoulos commented about earning the program's 2,000th win. "We inherited that from all of the previous teams and we are always trying to put our best foot forward. Sometimes we have really good seasons, sometimes average and sometimes we would like to be better. But we keep going at it and that is something the entire program can feel proud about. 2,000 wins for a program is a lot and hats off to all of the people that have played here in the past and it is a nice feeling."
 
The second game of the best-of-three semifinal series is set for 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon from Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.