ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Erupting for 17 hits in the final tune-up before the Patriot League semifinals, the Navy baseball team (23-25) closed out its regular season with an 8-5 win over a strong Elon squad (28-18) on Sunday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
On a day when five Midshipmen tallied multi-hit performances, Alex Smith led the way once again by racking up four hits while Kyle Rausch and Zane Raba both posted three-hit contests. On the mound, starter Matthew Shirah set the tone by tossing four shutout innings for his fifth win of the season before handing it off to a bullpen that included Landon Kruer picking up his Patriot League-leading ninth save in 2023.
 
Putting runners on the corners in the first and leaving one stranded in the second, Navy finally broke through offensively in the third as Smith and Rausch singled with two outs to bring up Logan Keller, who smashed a double off the left-field wall to plate both runners. Colin Smith then followed four pitches later by singling home Keller to give the Mids a 3-0 edge.
 
Shirah wrapped up his outing in the fourth inning, stranding a runner at third base for the second time Sunday, and let his offense get back to work in the bottom of the frame via a leadoff double from Ivan Aguirre into the left-field corner. Moving up to third on a wild pitch, Aguirre easily scooted home on a Raba single and Raba himself came around to score on a Nick Burch double into the right-center gap, while Rausch cashed in Burch three batters later to extend the Navy lead to 6-0.
 
Elon cut the deficit to 6-2 in the top of the fifth on an RBI double from Connor Coolahan and a run-scoring single by Parker Haskin, but Burch ripped another RBI double with two on and two down in the home half of the inning to make it 7-2. A Coolahan two-run home run in the seventh again shrunk the Navy lead, but another single off the bat of Raba drove in Keller in the bottom of the frame to put the Mids in front, 8-4.
 
After a Tanner Holliman eighth-inning double made it 8-5, Navy turned the ball over to Kruer for the start of the ninth, and the closer responded by getting Connor Offshack to ground out into a game-ending double play after allowing a Haskin single, securing his 16th career save.
 
Shirah notched the win after holding Elon to just three hits while striking out four in his four frames of work. Thomas Russell followed by giving up two runs over two innings and Jackson Beattie got three outs in the seventh following Coolahan's homer, while Nolan Jorgenson surrendered one run in an inning out of the bullpen to set up Kruer for the three-out save.
 
With Ryan Sprock getting the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits across three-plus innings, Elon turned it over to Liam Dabagian for two frames, who let up three runs on six hits. Ben Simon finished out the game by limiting Navy to just one more run over the last three innings.
 
Paul Kostacopoulos Postgame Comments
"We had a complete effort today. From a standpoint of offense, defense and pitching, we executed a game plan of what we wanted to try to do and the guys stayed with it. We had 39 at-bats today and I bet 32 or 33 of them were good. We were able to foul some balls off, their guys made a couple mistakes and we were able to hit them. We did a good job overall and it was a good win for us."
 
"Alex did what he's done pretty much all year since the third week. He's been our guy and he continues to be our guy. He's just doing a super job for us not only offensively but defensively, too. They tried to run once and he threw them out to kind of discourage them the rest of the day, and he's just really played well recently."
 
"I liked how Shirah battled through when the fourth inning got a little tough on him. He got the outs that he needed, he got out of there and he did a good job today, and he's just pitched really well the last couple weeks. Landon did a nice job last night getting out of a big spot, and then he did a nice job today pitching to the situation. He got the first out and then went 3-2, but, at the same time, he challenged the zone so they got a hit and then he gets a ground ball to end it. That's what you want to see out of a closer."
 
"We got to have a good week of practice heading into the postseason. They have some exams the next couple days and then we got to get back at it Wednesday. The big thing now is just be mentally focused on what we have to do."
 
Game Notes
• Navy evened the all-time series with Elon at 1-1.
• Brock Murtha extended his on-base streak to 17 games with two hits on Sunday.
• Alex Smith's four-hit day gives him a team-best 15 multi-hit contests this season, while Burch's two hits on Sunday gives him 14 multi-hit games on the campaign.
• Raba's three hits match his season high from April 12 at Maryland Eastern Shore.
• Shirah's four shutout innings marked his first scoreless outing of the season.
• Shirah has now recorded three-or-more strikeouts in each of his last 10 starts.
• Kruer is now one save shy of tying both the single-season and career Navy save records.
• Navy has won or split nine of its 12 weekend series this season.
 
Up Next
No. 3 seed Navy heads to second-seeded Bucknell for the 2023 Patriot League Championship's best-of-three semifinal round at Depew Field in Lewisburg, Pa. The teams open the series on Saturday, May 13, with Game 1 at noon and Game 2 at 3 p.m. The deciding Game 3, if necessary, is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch on Monday, May 15.