LEWISBURG, Pa. – The 2023 season came to an end for the Navy baseball team (23-27) on Saturday afternoon in the Patriot League Championship, as Bucknell (23-21-1) swept the Midshipmen in the first two games of the best-of-three semifinal series at Depew Field.
 
With Chris DiFiore keeping the Navy bats in check in the opener en route to a 2-0 shutout, the Bison then got a two-run walk-off single from Billy Kender in the ninth to take the nightcap, 7-6, despite the Mids erasing an early 3-0 hole and taking a 6-5 lead into the final inning.
 
Game One Recap
An early sacrifice fly by Sean Keys was all the run support DiFiore needed in the opening game of the semifinals, as the Bucknell southpaw allowed just three hits over nine innings to outduel Navy ace Nate Mitchell, who limited the Bison to two runs in a 6.2-inning start.
 
After Bucknell got on the board in the first inning courtesy of the Keys sacrifice fly to bring home Anthony Sherwin, Navy tried to answer in the top of the second with back-to-back one-out singles, but the Bison turned a double play off an infield line-out to avoid danger. Both pitchers then settled in until the sixth inning when Jake Wortman doubled home Keys to make it 2-0 Bison.
 
Jackson Beattie relieved Mitchell with two outs in the seventh and shut down the Bison the rest of the way, giving Navy a chance to rally in the bottom of the ninth. Eduardo Diaz nearly ignited that comeback attempt with a two-out double just inside the third-base line, but DiFiore got a fly-out to cap off the complete-game shutout.
 
DiFiore finished the game by allowing just the three hits and one walk while striking out two Mids for the win. On the Navy side, Mitchell surrendered nine hits and recorded one strikeout in his final start as a Mid, suffering the loss, while Beattie gave up just one walk and struck out two in his 1.1 innings of work.
 
Game Two Recap
Sparked by a Kyle Rausch home run, the Mids overcame an early deficit in the nightcap to take the lead and almost force a decisive third game on Monday, but Kender had other plans, as he used RBI singles in both the eighth and nine innings to hand Bucknell a spot in the league's championship series next week.
 
The Bison took an early 2-0 advantage in the second game, as a double from Keys off the right-field wall scored Grant Voytovich and a Tyler Dunn single plated Keys later in the frame.
 
Bucknell briefly took a 3-0 lead in the third inning as Jacob Corson's leadoff triple set him up to score on a Voytovich single one pitch later, but Navy right-hander Matthew Shirah left the bases loaded to keep the game within reach. The Mids instantly answered with a Diaz walk to start the top of the fourth, while Rausch drove a one-out line drive over the left-field fence two batters later to bring Navy within one run. Colin Smith and Brock Murtha then laced back-to-back doubles to plate Smith and tie the game at 3-3 before the Bison's Will Greer escaped further damage.
 
Voytovich handed the lead right back to Bucknell in the home half of the fourth when he singled home Sherwin, but Reece Early took over for Shirah in the fifth and retired the first nine batters he faced to give the Mids time to fight back.
 
After Logan Keller doubled to start the sixth and a Smith single advanced him to third, Keller was able to scoot home for the tying run on a double-play ball, while the Mids eventually took the lead in the eighth when Zane Raba lifted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to bring in Smith, while a wild pitch later in the eighth allowed Murtha to slide head-first into home and make it 6-4 Navy.
 
Kender responded by singling home Tyler Dunn in the bottom of the eighth after Dunn smacked a leadoff double, while Nick Mulvey stranded Navy runners on second and third in the top of the ninth to preserve the one-run deficit. Down to their last three outs and facing closer Landon Kruer, Sherwin and Corson walked to start the bottom of the ninth before Kruer got two outs, but Dunn was hit to load the bases and bring up Kender, who poked a two-strike, two-run single up the middle to end the Mids' season and send Bucknell to the Patriot League finals for the second-straight year.
 
Greer got a no-decision after going five innings and allowing four runs on five hits while striking out five, and Theo Farynick gave up two runs in three innings before Mulvery earned the win by keeping Navy scoreless in the ninth. Shirah also did not factor into the decision, allowing four runs in four innings, while Early finished up his baseball career by holding Bucknell to just one run and two hits in 3.1 innings of relief. Kruer was handed the loss despite picking up two strikeouts in one-plus innings.
 
Paul Kostacopoulos Postgame Comments
"Going back to the games, we got a 2-0 contest in the first game that was a really well-played game by both teams, and then just a back-and-forth battle in the second game, where, unfortunately, we ended up on the short end of the stick. I thought we competed really well, but they got one more hit than we did in the end."
 
"It's always hard to reflect right after because there's so much to process when you're talking about an entire season, but I told the seniors I couldn't have more respect and be prouder of them for the way they managed the leadership components, the way they played, and their contribution levels this season. They just really did a fabulous job of doing that. I thought our team played extremely hard. We had to play hard to win every game we did, it was not a team that just could roll the ball out there and win. We had to do a lot of good things to win games, and they put their best foot forward doing that and that's just a sign of great pure leadership. I so appreciate that as a coach because it allows you to do the things that you need to do to be successful."
 
"I think one of the things I always talk about is, once that last game is played, that's the last time this team will be together. That's the first takeaway and that's always hard, especially when you enjoy each other and like each other. That makes it difficult that this team will no longer be a team, but, like anything, we'll move forward. We will develop guys, there will be changes, there will be adjustments, we will work with a whole new set of freshmen, and we'll start working on that immediately. We'll also start our recruiting process, so everything just starts again. We need to process this a little bit and then we'll start with the business, but for today, right now, it's really about reflecting and looking back at how proud I am of how we played the game this year, maybe not in terms of wins and losses, but how we went about playing Navy Baseball."
 
Game Notes
• This marked Navy's 23rd appearance in the Patriot League's postseason tournament and the 13th appearance under Kostacopoulos, with 11 of those coming over the past 12 PL Championships.
• Bucknell cut Navy's lead in the all-time series to 94-83-1.
• Mitchell ends his career with a program-record 1.165 walks allowed per nine innings (minimum 120 innings), issuing just 18 walks over 139 career innings.
• Keller finished the second game with three hits, his 12th multi-hit contest of the season, while Colin Smith's two hits brought him to 10 multi-hit performances in his final campaign.
• Rausch is the first Navy player to reach five homers in a season since 2019, when Christian Hodge (12), Liam Lowery (7), Zach Stevens (5) and Jacob Williamson (5) all did so.
• Navy's 338 strikeouts as a pitching staff this season ranks as the 13th most in program history.