ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy (11-1) stretched its winning streak to 11 games as the Midshipmen scored two runs in the fifth inning and another run in the sixth to upend Fairleigh Dickinson (3-7) en route to a 3-1 victory on Saturday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Navy got another strong outing from its pitching staff with Tommy Goodridge (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) allowing just one run in 6-1/3 innings to start. Trent Topping (So., Temecula, Calif.) pitched 2-2/3 innings of scoreless ball to close the game and seal the win for the Midshipmen.
 
Zach Biggers (Sr., Walhalla, S.C.) paced the Navy offense with a 2-for-4 day at the plate and he surpassed the 200-hit mark in his career. Michael Coritz (Sr., Clifton, Va.) scored once, drove in a run and chipped in with a hit for the Midshipmen's offense.
 
"I thought today's start was good for Tommy," head coach Paul Kostacopoulos said after the game. "He had been struggling a little bit with the strike zone and he only walked one in 6-1/3 innings so it was a really solid performance from him. He pitches three different speeds, he has to hit corners and he was pretty sharp today. It was also a good outing for Trent Topping today as well. He had a couple of rough outings early and I thought he had a really good outing also. Our pitching carried us again today as far as coming out with the win.
 
"Offensively, we need to find our stride again. We have kind of struggled the last couple of games but hopefully, we are going to come out here tomorrow and have a better offensive day."
 
In the first inning, both offenses had scoring chances early as the Knights had two runners base but left both runners aboard. In the home half of the inning, Navy had runners on the corners with one out and Alex Smith (Fr., Laguna Hills, Calif.) lined a ball to shortstop that was caught and dropped but he was ruled out after the ball was dropped on the transfer. Evan Lowery (Sr., Williamsburg, Va.) was doubled up on the line shot from Smith as he was running on the pitch.
 
Fairleigh Dickinson scored the first run of the ball game as it put together back-to-back one-out singles. The Midshipmen got a groundball and just missed the double play as the Knights brought in a run to take the early 1-0 advantage.
 
After a scoreless third and fourth inning, Navy got a leadoff single from Jacob Williamson (Sr., Sims, N.C.) and he moved up to third base with a passed ball and a wild pitch. However, he was stranded after an inning-ending double play.
 
The Midshipmen got on the board in their next at-bat as the Knights went to their bullpen in the bottom of the fifth inning. Biggers and Coritz started the frame with back-to-back singles and they both moved up 90 feet after a groundout by Lowery. With the bases loaded and one out, Christian Policelli (So., Walkersville, Md.) drove in Navy's first run to tie the game with a sacrifice fly to right field. Then with Williamson at the plate, Coritz raced home from third on a wild pitch as Navy grabbed a 2-1 edge over Fairleigh Dickinson.
 
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Ryan Duffey (Jr., Duxbury, Mass.) doubled out to left field as Navy looked for an insurance run. Biggers notched his second hit of the game to put runners on the corners once again and then Coritz pushed the Midshipmen's lead to 3-1 with a sacrifice fly.
 
Over the final three innings, Goodridge and Topping allowed the Knights to muster up just one hit to extinguish a Fairleigh Dickinson rally. Topping secured his first save of the season as Navy earned a 3-1 victory to push its winning streak to 11 games.
 
In his 6-1/3-inning start, Goodridge (2-0) allowed a run on just four hits and a walk while striking out four hitters. Topping (1) gave up only one hit and one walk over the final 2-2/3 innings and he struck out a pair for Navy.
 
Jesse Bloom (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up three runs on four hits and three walks. Phillip Romeo allowed one hit in his four-inning start but walked seven batters.
 
The Midshipmen conclude their 10-game homestand on Sunday at 4 p.m. against UMBC at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium. Prior to the Navy-UMBC contest, Penn State and Fairleigh Dickinson will square off at noon on Sunday in Annapolis.