ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Finishing off its first three-game series sweep since the 2020 season, the Navy baseball team (7-8) held off a late Princeton (2-8) rally to win, 7-4, on Saturday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Five shutout innings from right-handed starter Thomas Russell allowed the Midshipmen to get to work building up a lead, as Logan Keller, Henry Mitchell and Zane Raba all tallied two-hit performances at the plate for Navy, with Keller driving in three runs singlehandedly and Raba notching two RBI as well.
 
With Russell striking out a career-high six batters and scattering five Princeton hits over his five scoreless frames, Navy got its offense humming in the third inning when Hudson Lehnertz led off with a single to left field and promptly stole second base before moving over on a groundout. With Lehnertz just 90 feet away from home, Keller drove a sacrifice fly to center field, allowing Lehnertz to tag up with ease for Saturday's first run.
 
The Mids added two more runs on one play in the fourth, as Colin Smith, Mitchell and Brock Murtha all reached safely to start the frame, bringing up Raba with one down. Raba hit into a fielder's choice that brought in Smith, while a Princeton throwing error on the play brought home Mitchell as well to extend the Navy lead.
 
Princeton got on the board in the top of the sixth when Nolan Jorgenson came on in relief of Russell, as a Caden Shapiro one-out single was followed by a Jake Koonin triple that drove in Shapiro of the Tigers' first run, while a single from Matt Scannell two batters later scored Koonin to bring Princeton within one run.
 
Navy did not waste any time rebuilding its lead, bringing in four runs during the home half of the sixth, as Mitchell and Murtha singled the lead off the inning. A one-out single from Raba drove in Mitchell, while Raba manufactured a way for Murtha to score by stealing second and forcing a throw down that allowed Murtha to race home. A Lehnertz walk then set up Keller's two-run double down the third-base line that widened the Navy advantage to 7-2.
 
Jorgenson kept Princeton in check through the seventh and eighth innings before recording the first out in the top of the ninth, giving way to Tyler Grenn. After Grenn surrendered a bases-loaded, two-run double to Jake Bold that cut the lead to 7-4, Navy turned to Zach Ward with one out. With the tying run at the plate, Ward fanned the next two Tiger batters to close out the sweep and earn his first career save.
 
Russell (2-1) threw nearly 100 pitches to pick up win, letting just eight Tigers reach base on five hits and three walks while matching another career high with his five frames of work. On the Princeton side, Andrew D'Alessio (0-3) got the loss after yielding three runs in five innings despite limiting the Mids to four hits and registering three strikeouts.
 
Paul Kostacopoulos Postgame Comments
"First of all, we got a really good start from Russell when we needed it, being a little thin as far as our pitching goes. He got really competitive, too, pitching out of some jams and really did a good job. I think Nolan did a nice job out of the bullpen, too. We did some good things, we did some connected baseball things, and I thought we ran the bases well when we had the opportunities. We put some balls in play and they were probably half our runs. It wasn't a gap shot with bases loaded, it was more just continuing to put the ball in play and advance runners."
 
"Probably the last two or three games, we've started to get a little bit more aggressive on the bases. Some of it is score-driven, too. When you're down, three, four or five runs, it's really tough to do that because you can't run into too many outs, but we got enough pitching where you can be aggressive. I don't think sometimes people understand that if you get some pitching, you can be aggressive, and we were able to do that pretty much all weekend because we had a little bit of pitching."
 
"We got a busy week coming up. We're going to see a lot of different players this week, which is typical of spring break. You're going to schedule a little bit more maybe then you normally would and see some fresh faces, giving them an opportunity to play. One thing I've been really happy with is we've played our bench. Everybody has played pretty much, as far as getting in there and doing some things, and that's good for your team."
 
Game Notes
• Navy now leads 70-52 in the all-time series with Princeton, holding a four-game winning streak over the Tigers.
• Navy's sweep of Princeton marks their first three-game weekend series sweep since notching three wins in three games against UMass (Feb. 29-March 1, 2020), which came after another three-game sweep over Air Force the weekend before (Feb. 22-23, 2020).
• Keller's two hits gave him his team-leading fifth multi-hit game of the 2023 campaign, while the junior has now driven in three-or-more runs three times this season.
• Murtha currently has the longest hit streak on the Mids at five-straight games with a base-knock.
• Russell's 19 strikeouts so far this season are a career best.
• Ward is the fourth different Navy reliever to pick up a save this year.
• Navy batters matched a season low by only striking out three times on Sunday.
• The Mids are 5-0 this season in games that they do not allow a home run.
 
Up Next
Navy travels to Delaware State on Tuesday, March 14 for a 2 p.m. start, before heading to Penn State for a 5 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday, March 15. The Mids then host Bucknell in their first Patriot League series of the season on March 17-19, with Friday's opener set for 2 p.m.