ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The best rivalry in college baseball returned Sunday afternoon, as the Navy baseball team (12-11, 3-3 PL) split a Patriot League doubleheader with Army (10-12, 1-1 PL) in front of a filled Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Using another impressive start from sophomore Tyler Grenn and junior Landon Kruer's program-record 18th career save, the Midshipmen grabbed a 5-2 win in the opener to end a five-game losing streak to the Black Knights, while Army bounced back in the nightcap to defeat Navy, 8-1, despite a third-straight multi-hit game from senior Hudson Lehnertz.
 
Game One Recap
Navy found itself in an early hole, as Derek Berg used some aggressiveness to leg out a double to start the game, eventually getting to third base and then tagging up on a Braden Golinski sacrifice fly to hand Army a 1-0 first-inning lead.
 
A pair of nice defensive plays in the second inning backed up Grenn's pitching, while the Mids' bats got to work in the bottom of the second with six-straight singles to begin the frame. After back-to-back singles from sophomore Brock Murtha and junior Andrew Manning, Lehnertz delivered another single to plate Murtha and even the score, while a bunt single by senior Anthony Fiallo loaded the bases and sophomore Victor Izquierdo ripped a fifth-straight single up the middle to bring in Manning and Lehnertz, giving Navy a 3-1 edge.
 
Army answered in the third with Berg scoring once again on a sacrifice fly after a leadoff double, this time coming home on Sam Ruta's flyout. In the fourth, Navy retook a two-run margin, as sophomore Mac McCommons doubled down the left line to start the home half while a sacrifice bunt from senior Zane Raba and a passed ball brought the Navy backstop across home. With Grenn working out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth, Navy added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning when Manning walked and then raced home two batters later on Fiallo's deep triple into the right-center gap.
 
After Grenn got three more outs in the sixth, Navy turned the ball over to Kruer for the final inning, where he worked around a one-out walk to notch his record-setting save and secure the Mids' first win over Army since 2022.
 
Grenn finished his day with two runs allowed on seven hits and two walks, striking out two over his six frames to get the win, while Kruer notched one strikeout in his four batters faced.
 
On the Army side, Mike Ruggieri lasted five frames and allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits, punching out five despite suffering the loss, and Trey Ates worked a clean sixth inning.
 
Game Two Recap
The nightcap saw Navy flip the script and strike first, as a leadoff double from Manning in the second inning was followed by back-to-back ground balls, allowing Manning to move base-to-base and score on senior Brian Furey's grounder that was misplayed by the Army shortstop.
 
Another Berg double in the third inning kickstarted a three-run rally for the Black Knights, as Carter Hewitt's double was followed by Berg's to even the contest, while Golinski and William Parker both hit sacrifice flies later in the inning to give Army a 3-1 advantage. Loading the bases again in the fifth, Parker cashed in two more runs for Army with a single that scored Berg and Chris Barr.
 
With Justin Lehman and Matthew Ronnebaum holding the Navy offense at bay the rest of the game, Army tacked on another three runs in the eighth when Lehman singled in Ethan Ellis and Barr poked a two-run triple down the right-field line, swelling the lead to 8-1. The Mids tried to rally in the ninth with back-to-back singles to start the frame, but Ronnebaum shut the door with two strikeouts sandwiching a fly ball.
 
Senior starter Matthew Shirah got the start for Navy and struck out the side in the first inning, but ended the day with five runs on five hits in five innings, walking five to five strikeouts and being handed the loss. Sophomore Jackson Beattie followed with four frames of relief, allowing three runs on five hits but punching out four.
 
Lehman got the win after 6.1 innings of one-run ball, allowing five hits but striking out three, and Ronnebaum ended with three strikeouts in 2.2 scoreless innings.
 
Coach Chuck Ristano Comments
"You can't help but feel how the energy kind of changes when Army comes to town and you could see it in the bleachers. Tyler has been the most reliable performer that we've had so far, so it was easy to give him the baseball and he put together a performance that kind of we expected him to put together. It was not quite as dominant as it was against Bucknell last weekend and, to be honest, it says a lot more about the level of pitcher he's becoming that he can evade some of the traffic that he had to deal with and still put that kind of effort together."
 
"We did a really good job of battling with two strikes in the first game. We had the entire offensive playbook open and we ran a little bit, we short gamed a little bit, we two-strike hit a little bit and I think that was the story of how we were able to put runs on the board. I also really liked the fact that we bent a little bit but never broke. We bent and then we swung back, and every guy who maybe had a defensive miscue in that first game went on to do something really productive with the bat. That's a really good testament to these guys' resilience."
 
Game Notes
• Navy moved to 130-129 in the all-time series against Army with the split.
• Sunday's opener marked the first home win for Navy over Army since May 18, 2019 in the Patriot League Championship series.
• Kruer passed Trey Braithwaite and JD Melton for the program record in career saves, surpassing the 17 total saves each collected in their times at Navy.
• Kruer's 18 career saves also stand as the fifth most in Patriot League history.
• Izquierdo tallied his team-leading seventh multi-RBI contest in Sunday's first game, while his 21-game on-base streak was snapped in the nightcap.
 
Up Next
Navy continues Patriot League play on Monday afternoon, hosting Holy Cross for a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.