ANNAPOLIS, Md. – After falling into a 9-2 hole and fighting back to tie the game 10-10 in the seventh inning of its home opener, the Navy baseball team (0-4) was unable to complete the comeback and fell 18-10 to Georgetown (3-1) on Tuesday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Leading the slugfest were Navy junior Logan Keller and the Hoyas' Michael Eze, as both players tallied four hits in the contest. Keller became the second Midshipman in two games to record a four-hit performance, while Eze tallied three runs scored and three RBI in a day that saw the Georgetown infielder reach base safely in all six plate appearances. Navy senior Kyle Rausch also joined in on the offensive explosion with four RBI, a total matched by the Hoyas' Austin Krerzschmar.
 
A lead-off home run by Jake Hyde to open the game kicked off a four-run first inning for Georgetown, while a Rausch sacrifice fly and a double from senior Colin Smith helped the Mids cut into that deficit in the second and third innings. A two-run double off the bat of the Hoyas' Ubaldo Lopez and an Eze two-run homer widened the GU lead to 9-2 in the fourth, but freshman reliever Tyler Grenn then held the Hoyas to one run over the next three frames and allowed the Navy offense to rally.
 
With Grenn limiting the Georgetown bats, the Mids struck for five runs in the bottom of the sixth when Keller ripped a two-run single up the middle with the bases loaded and no outs, with Rausch, junior Eduardo Diaz and junior pinch hitter Hudson Lehnertz all tallying RBI singles later in the inning. A Hoya sacrifice fly made it 10-7 Georgetown in the top of the seventh, but a bases-clearing, two-run triple from Rausch and another RBI single from Diaz in the next at-bat brought the game even in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Georgetown responded with seven runs in the visiting half of the eighth, highlighted by a Christian Ficca two-run double and a RBI double from Angelo D'Acunto two batters later, while the Hoyas added one more run in the ninth on a Kretzschmar sacrifice fly before Garret Keough closed down the game by retiring three of the four Mids he faced in the bottom of the ninth.
 
Despite Cody Bowker going five innings and only surrendering two runs in the start, four Georgetown relievers combined to record 1.2 innings before Keough came in and picked up the winning decision with 2.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, striking out four while allowing two hits.
 
For Navy, Grenn threw three innings of one-run, one-hit relief as the third Midshipman hurler of the afternoon, giving way to sophomore Liam Golden, who registered one out before giving up five runs and being handed the loss.
 
Paul Kostacopoulos Post-Game Comments
"It's always good to be home. When you're playing here, you're a little more comfortable, a little more familiar. With midweek college baseball, you're never in the win column and you're never in the last column. That's a 10-10 game going on at the top of the eighth and I think probably that's lost in the in the final score of 18-10. But it was a 10-10 game and we were able to come back from a 9-2 deficit, get ourselves back with an opportunity to play a two-inning game, which unfortunately didn't go our way in the end."
 
"Our hitters are right on the baseball, Logan hit four balls really hard and Brock is still right on the baseball and that's good. We got some quality at-bats from a bunch of people. I thought Diaz had some better at-bats today and I thought Rausch had some good at-bats. Our offense is starting to emerge a little bit. We got some things to do. We still got some personnel things to work out with Victor being out. We're still trying to work around that a little bit and we'll continue to do that. Even some of our outs were pretty loud outs with balls hit right on the line. Offensively, we did some good things. I thought we played a little more comfortable on defense as well. I thought our outfielders ran the ball down better, didn't get jittery. I thought we handled the baseball better. Other than the one throwing error, it was a more secure performance. Obviously, we got a long way to go there but it was much better in the field."
 
Game Notes
• Navy is now 65-49 all-time against Georgetown, with the Hoyas winning the last two meetings.
• Murtha has now recorded multiple hits in three straight games.
• Keller joined Murtha (Feb. 19 vs. Ohio) as the first two Mids this season with four-hit games.
• Keller has now started 81 consecutive games for Navy, while Diaz has made 74 straight starts for the Mids.
• Freshman left-hander Corbin Warner made his collegiate debut out of the bullpen in the ninth inning, while Murtha registered his first collegiate pitching appearance in the final inning as well.
• Navy is now 12-5-1 in home opener under head coach Paul Kostacopoulos.
 
Next Up
Navy will take on rival service academy Air Force on Feb. 24-26 in the Freedom Classic at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C. Friday's first pitch is set for 6 p.m., while Saturday is a 2 p.m. start and Sunday's contest is slated for 12:30 p.m.