ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy baseball team (20-22) could not hold on to a late lead Wednesday evening, as the Midshipmen left 15 runners on base in a 9-7, 12-inning loss to Maryland Eastern Shore (13-26) at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Despite Brock Murtha smashing a home run and double at the plate and tossing 2.2 innings out of the bullpen to go with a three-hit night from Alex Smith, the Mids' two-way player suffered the loss after surrendering the go-ahead run in the top of the 12th on Alex McCoy's third hit of the contest.
 
Navy got the scoring started in the bottom of the first, as a balk brought Nick Burch home for the opening run before a Logan Keller triple scored Eduardo Diaz and Colin Smith's single allowed Keller to trot home, giving the Mids an early 3-0 cushion for starter Evan Hamill. The Hawks began to claw back in the third when Dillon Oxyer doubled home Brian Cordell, while a Derrick Mayes fourth-inning sacrifice bunt brought in another run and McCoy's single in the fifth scored Cordell to tie the game at 3-3.
 
Keller came up with another run-scoring hit in the bottom of the fifth with a single down the left-field line, bringing home Alex Smith and handing the lead back to Navy. Murtha's solo shot to lead off the sixth kicked off an inning that eventually saw Burch single in the Mids' sixth run of the evening. Alex Smith then came home on a bases-loaded fielder's choice in the home half of the seventh to extend the advantage to 7-3.
 
Putting two on to start the eighth, Eastern Shore started its second comeback of the night when Ryan Howe doubled in both runners to cut the lead to 7-5, with Howe then scoring on a groundout six pitches later. Loading the bases and down one, the Hawks completed the rally later in the seventh when Cordell dumped a single into right field to plate Luke Myers.
 
The Mids in turn loaded the bases in the home half of the eighth but Poter Braddy worked out of danger, while fellow reliever Nick Gatton stranded the winning run on the base path after Murtha doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Moving to the mound, Murtha retired the first six batters he faced to give Navy another chance in the 11th, but Navy stranded a pair of runners in scoring position.
 
With the momentum swung back to the visitors, Brantley Cutler smacked a triple off the left-field wall to start the 12th and crossed home to put the Hawks ahead on McCoy's single, while McCoy tacked on an insurance run later in the frame on a Myers single. Navy brought the tying run to the plate after putting two on in the bottom of the 12th, but UMES closer Caden Parker induced a fly out to seal the Hawks' win and his eighth save of the season.
 
With starter Raymond Smith lasting four innings and three relievers following before Braddy's 1.2 innings, Gatton worked three scoreless innings and struck out two to earn the win before giving the ball to Parker for the 12th.
 
Hamill got back on track by holding the Hawks to one run in three frames but did not factor into the decision, as four bullpen arms combined to allow six runs in six innings before Murtha shifted to the mound in the 10th and struck out a career-high four batters before giving up the winning run and being relieved by Tyler Grenn for one out.
 
Paul Kostacopoulos Postgame Comments
"Tonight's thoughts have been the same as they've been the last 10 days. We left 15 guys on base and that is just an enormous amount of guys left stranded, with many of them in scoring position. That's tough to overcome when you're not scoring guys. We had a couple great opportunities in the middle of our order and a couple of great opportunities in the backend of our order, but it didn't matter as we didn't get them in. Hopefully that's something you just break out of where you get a couple of balls to go through with guys in scoring position, and then you hope it reverses the direction that we're currently in."
 
"I think Brock threw extremely well despite not scripting him to throw that much, but you get in those (extra-inning) games and there's not much you really can do. He had a really good game and he's been successful on the mound when he's been called upon and he had really solid at-bats today to go with it."
 
Game Notes
• Maryland Eastern Shore broke a 12-game losing streak to Navy, moving the all-time series to 35-6 in the Mids' favor.
• Keller has now recorded multi-RBI contests in each of his three career appearances against UMES, tallying an extra-base hit in all three of those contests as well.
• Alex Smith has notched multi-hit performances in eight of Navy's 17 games in the month of April.
• Keller and Murtha each recorded multi-hit games in both meetings with the Hawks this season.
• Navy is now 1-3 in extra-inning games this season.
 
Up Next
Navy heads to league rival Lehigh for a three-game set on April 29-30 that will wrap up the Mids' Patriot League regular season slate. Saturday's doubleheader is set for a noon start, while the series finale on Sunday is also slated for first pitch at noon.