ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy baseball (3-1) opened its home slate on Wednesday with a 6-1 win over Coppin State (0-4), which marked the third-straight win for the Midshipmen and their third-straight home-opening victory.
Ryan Duffey (Jr., Duxbury, Mass.) finished the game going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and
Zach Biggers (Sr., Walhalla, S.C.) chipped in with two more RBIs for the Midshipmen. Navy's pitching staff struck out 10 batters without allowing a walk and the Midshipmen bullpen did not allow a baserunner over the final four innings.
"I think that is two-fold, our pitching has done a really good job the last three games to give us opportunities late in the game and get a two- or three-run innings and stretch the lead out, which is good to see," head coach
Paul Kostacopoulos said about his team generating insurance runs late in the game. "I thought we did a good job today with plate discipline. They did not throw a ton of strikes but we did not chase a ton of balls either and swing for outs."
For the third time in the first four games of the season, Navy struck first with two runs in the second inning.
Zach Stevens (So., Lexington, Mass.) led off the inning with a double down the right-field line and with two outs in the inning, Duffey drove in his first run of the contest with a double to the gap in right-center field to plate Stevens. Still with two outs, Navy drew three-straight walks to bring in its second run of the contest to grab an early 2-0 lead over the Eagles.
The Midshipmen were unable to add on to their lead after stranding four runners over the next three innings. Coppin State got on the board in the top of the sixth inning with back-to-back doubles to start the frame and cut the Navy lead in half.
After allowing the first run of the game,
Reece Early (Fr., Reisterstown, Md.) finished his start after going five innings and allowing just one run on four hits.
Colin Jones (So., Collierville, Tenn.) came out of the bullpen with no outs and a runner in scoring position. Just like his last outing, Jones struck out the next three batters to keep the Midshipmen ahead by a run.
Right after the Eagles got on the board, Navy answered back with a three-run bottom of the sixth inning to create some separation in the second half of the contest. The Midshipmen loaded the bases with no outs in the frame and for the second time on Wednesday, Biggers drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. Without recording a hit over the final three batters, Navy drove in two more runs following sacrifice flies from
Michael Coritz (Sr., Clifton, Va.) and
Christian Policelli (So., Walkersville, Md.).
With a 5-1 lead in the seventh, Duffey drove in Stevens for the second time on the day with a two-out single up the middle to increase the Navy lead to five runs.
After the bullpen came into the game in the middle of the sixth inning, the trio of Jones,
Trent Topping (So., Temecula, Calif.) and
Trey Braithwaite (Jr., Winchester, Va.) worked a perfect four frames combing for eight strikeouts to seal the 6-1 win for the Midshipmen.
In his first collegiate start, Early (1-0) struck out two batters without allowing a walk to help pace the Navy pitching staff.
"I thought he pitched really well," Kostacopoulos said about his freshman pitcher. "There were no real jitters, he was right around the strike zone, made them put the ball in play and gave us a quality start. He left the game with a 2-1 lead in five-plus innings and he did a nice job for us today."
Lawrence Noble (0-1) suffered the loss for the Eagles after going 1-2/3 innings allowing two runs on two hits and three walks. As a staff, Coppin State surrendered nine walks on Wednesday.
Navy is now set to take on Air Force for a three-game series at the Freedom Classic. Following a schedule change, the three-game series will now be played over Saturday and Sunday in Kinston, N.C. Saturday will feature one game at 2 p.m. with a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 11:30 a.m.
