ANNAPOLIS, Md. – After dropping both ends of the doubleheader on Saturday, Navy (10-5, 5-5 Patriot League) bounced back on Sunday and swept Lafayette (6-11, 5-9) in both games of the doubleheader, 8-4 and 10-5, at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Following a 23-hit day on Saturday, the Midshipmen racked up 20 more hits on Sunday with Logan Keller (Fr., Longwood, Fla.) and Zach Stevens (Jr., Lexington, Mass.) leading the charge with four hits apiece while Stevens and Nico Valdez (Jr., Stevenson Ranch, Calif.) paced Navy with three RBIs each.
 
"I told the guys I was proud of them today," head coach Paul Kostacopoulos said. "It was a long, frustrating day yesterday and less than 12 hours later we were able to regroup. I thought we played extremely hard. We had three or four hustle plays that really changed the complexation of game two. We beat out a groundball, we hustled around on a sacrifice bunt and Christian Policelli was able to score by just hustling. I think that was a key today, just playing hard.
 
"We are getting a good blend right now. Zach Stevens is holding his own and Christian Policelli is starting to swing the bat well for us. Logan Keller is able to get at-bats with a lot of runners on base and he has done a great job of hitting with guys on base. We are getting a little blend of a 3-4-5 and made some changes up top to get us a little more speed in the lineup and I think it worked out and helped us today," Kostacopoulos concluded.

Navy 8, Lafayette 4
 
The Midshipmen continued the trend of getting ahead early with a two-run first inning after Alex Smith's (So., Laguna Hills, Calif.) grounder to the shortstop was thrown away allowing Stevens and Kyle Rausch (So., Middle Island, N.Y.) to score and give Navy a 2-0 advantage. The Midshipmen grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second inning with Rausch doubling to left field bringing in Eduardo Diaz (Fr., Miami, Fla.).
 
After answering Navy's scoring on Saturday, Lafayette continued that run with a four-run third inning to take the 4-3 lead.
 
Facing a one-run deficit with just three innings to play in the first game of the day, the Midshipmen rallied and scored the final five runs of the game. In its three-run fifth inning, Navy loaded the bases and with one out and Valdez delivered a bases-clearing double to push the Midshipmen ahead, 6-4.
 
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Midshipmen added two more insurance as Stevens drove in Rausch with a triple and then Policelli brought home Stevens with a sacrifice fly as Navy picked the 8-4 victory in game one.
 
Dalton Baker (Jr., Sebring, Fla.) tossed the final 4-2/3 innings out of the bullpen allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out six hitters in his scoreless outing. Reece Early (So., Reisterstown, Md.) threw the first 2-1/3 innings of the contest and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk.
 
Luke Benneche suffered the loss for the Leopards after giving up six runs – four earned – on eight hits in five innings of work.
 
Navy 10, Lafayette 8
 
For the fourth time in as many games, Navy took the early lead and scored two runs in the opening frame off of a two-RBI triple from Keller with two outs in the inning.
 
However, the back-and-forth game began in the third inning with the Leopards scoring two runs on three hits, but Navy came back with a two-run inning of its own in the bottom of the fourth following back-to-back RBI singles from Rausch and Stevens as the Midshipmen held a 4-2 advantage after four innings.
 
Lafayette retied the game in the fifth inning and Navy answered back with four runs in the bottom of the stanza. With Alex Smith and Valdez reaching base to start the inning, Diaz laid down a sacrifice bunt where the ball was thrown of the glove of Zach Savage at first base and both Alex Smith and Valdez came into score. With Diaz at third base after the error, Zane Raba (Fr., San Antonio, Texas) ripped a single through the left side of the infield to push Navy ahead by three runs. Stevens capped off the scoring for the Midshipmen in the inning with a sacrifice fly to plate Raba and give Navy an 8-4 lead.
 
The lead was extinguished right away with the Leopards bouncing back with their own four-run frame in the sixth inning to knot the game at eight.
 
With the score tied in the seventh inning, Christian Policelli (Jr., Walkersville, Md.) crushed a two-out triple off the wall in left field to drive in Rausch. Then on the throw to home plate to try and tag out Rausch, the ball skipped away from the catcher and Policelli raced home to give Navy a 10-8 lead late in the contest.
 
Sante Grossi (Sr., Riverside, Calif.) pitched three innings of shutout baseball and Trey Braithwaite (Sr., Winchester, Va.) recorded the final two outs to seal the win 10-8 win for the Midshipmen.
 
Grossi (1-0) only allowed one hit in his three innings and struck out two for his first win of the year. Braithwaite earned his second save of the season to run his career total to 16, which is tied for second in school history with Joel Rinehart. In his second start of the week, Jared Leins (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.) threw 2-1/3 innings allowing two runs on three hits.
 
Jacob Ciccone was tagged with the loss after allowing the final two runs of the game on three hits and a walk after two innings of relief.
 
Navy continues its Patriot League scheduled on Saturday with a doubleheader against Bucknell starting at 1 p.m. from Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.