ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy baseball team (38-16) fell behind early to Army (33-23) in the first game of the Patriot League Championship and the Midshipmen were unable to recover in a 6-2 loss to the Black Knights. Game two of the Patriot League Championship is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday from Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Navy's offense tallied just two hits in the game with Michael Coritz (Jr., Clifton, Va.) and Zach Stevens (Fr., Lexington, Mass.) notching the hits for the Midshipmen on Friday night. Coritz also chipped in with a run and Evan Lowery (Jr., Williamsburg, Va.) also scored for Navy. Liam Lowery (Sr., Williamsburg, Va.) recorded Navy's only RBI on the night.
 
The Black Knights jumped on Noah Song (Sr., Claremont, Calif.) early with five runs and six hits over the first two innings. Anthony Giachin drove in the first five runs of the ballgame for Army with a two-RBI single in the first inning and a three-RBI double in the second inning.
 
After falling behind by two runs after the top of the first inning, the Midshipmen loaded the bases with no outs, but where only able to get one run across on a sacrifice fly from Liam Lowery.
 
With the Black Knights holding a 5-1 lead after two innings, Navy loaded the bases for the second time in the first three innings without recording a hit. With no outs in the third inning, Liam Lowery grounded into a double play to bring home a run, but Navy's rally was extinguished after the one run came in to score. 
 
Pitching on both sides settled down as the next five innings went by without a run scoring and Army still held a three-run lead. After getting one hit in the first inning, the next hit for the Midshipmen did not come until the bottom of the sixth inning following a two-out double from Stevens, who was stranded at third base to end the frame.
 
In the top of the ninth inning, Army tacked on a run with a  bases-loaded walk to take a 6-2 lead and Navy went down in order in the home half of the ninth inning in the 6-2 loss.
 
Song (11-1) suffered his first loss of the season after giving up five runs on nine hits and a walk in seven innings of work. Song still struck out 11 hitters in the game to run his season total to 161.
 
Sam Messina (7-4) earned his third win of the season against Navy after allowing two runs -- one earned -- on two hits and four walks.
 
"Army threw a large majority of fastballs and we need to get shorter to the ball and play to the opposite gap more," head coach Paul Kostacopoulos said about making adjustments for game two. "We also have to not miss pitches and not foul them back, not swing through them. We had some quality swings with good contact and the intent was there but we just did not produce. We had a couple of opportunities with the bases loaded and we only got two runs out of it. That is when you need to slash a gap to get back in the ballgame. We had the chances but could not take advantage of them and Army settled in."
 
Game two of the championship series is set for Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.