ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Battling back from a pair of early deficits, the Navy baseball team (20-13) used a pair of big innings to capture a 13-10 victory over a pesky Maryland Eastern Shore (0-26) squad on Wednesday evening at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Stabilized by freshman Evan Foster's 4.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, the Midshipmen were led by senior Zane Raba and sophomore Victor Izquierdo both recording multi-hit games and making highlight reels in the field, as Navy became the first Patriot League team to reach the 20-win mark this season and improved to 12-5 at home.
 
The Hawks came out swinging in the first inning, as a Derrick Mayes double kickstarted a frame that saw Isaiah Beseris lace a two-run double before Ulysses Luciano singled to get on and Anders Brown ripped his own single to score Beseris and Luciano and give UMES the 4-0 lead.
 
Navy took a patient approach in the bottom of the first to take its own lead, as five walks and a trio of hit-by-pitches helped the Mids score five runs without a hit, while a catcher's interference made it 6-4 Navy before Raba pounded a three-run single to clear the bases and extend the advantage to 9-4.
 
Raymond Smith was then able to keep the Navy bats silent for the next four frames, allowing Maryland Eastern Shore to mount its own rally in the third inning. Back-to-back singles to start the top of the third were followed by a Navy throwing error that brought in Beseris, while sacrifice flies from Danny Sadler Jr. and Brown preceded Bronson Taylor's RBI single that cut the Mids' lead to 9-8. Beseris then delivered a two-run single up the middle to hand UMES the lead for the second time on the evening, but Foster struck out Luciano to keep it a one-run game.
 
With Foster posting four zeros for the Mids on the mound, the Navy put runners on third in both the third and fourth innings before finally cashing in the tying run in the bottom of the sixth when freshman Andrew Manning's double and Izquierdo's single set up Manning to score on a botched sacrifice fly off the bat of senior Eduardo Diaz, while a two-out, two-run single by sophomore Mac McCommons into the left-center gap brought home Izquierdo and Diaz to give the lead back to Navy. The Mids then tacked on another run in the seventh using aggressive baserunning, as senior Logan Keller broke home from third base on Izquierdo's steal of second once the ball was thrown down.
 
After a pair of errors put two Hawks on in the eighth, sophomore Brock Murtha took over on the mound and got a pair of strikeouts to preserve the three-run lead, then working around a one-out single in the ninth inning to close out the Navy win and notch his second save of the season.
 
After freshman Owen Geiger lasted 0.2 innings in his first collegiate start, the Mids got a solid outing from sophomore Jackson Beattie, who allowed one earned run on three hits over two frames. Foster then held the Hawks to three hits while striking out a career-high five batters in 4.1 innings to earn his first collegiate win, while fellow rookie southpaw Timmy Virtudes took over for him and got one out before handing the ball to Murtha for the final 1.2 innings.
 
After Lee Byrd and Justin Praddy combined to go just 0.1 innings, Smith provided a strong 4.2 innings of relief before the Mids finally got to him, suffering the loss after allowing four runs (one earned) on seven hits while punching out five batters. Brandon Gomez then pitched one scoreless inning before Eric Elliott allowed one run over the final two frames.
 
Coach Chuck Ristano Comments
"That was a long, grinding midweek game. Any time you touch home plate more than the opposition, you celebrate it. Everything we work at is to prepare ourselves to win games when we are struggling to find our best. We have to be better in virtually every facet of the game and we work on that process daily, but there are a lot of positives that came out of today. Foster was terrific and so was Brock pulling double duty at the plate and on the mound. The moments of sustained struggle are tough to endure in the moment but we keep growing as a team and a program. These guys are special and they'll keep pushing forward."
 
Game Notes
• Navy is now 36-6 in the all-time series with Maryland Eastern Shore, winning 13 of the last 14 meetings.
• Navy's eight stolen bases against UMES are tied for the second-most in program single-game history, last accomplished on March 15, 2010 against Iona.
• Raba's three stolen bases on Wednesday were a career high and the most by a Navy player in a game this season.
• Keller's three walks matched his career high and matched the team's single-game high this season.
• Izquierdo's hitting streak moved to nine games.
 
Up Next
Navy hits the road again for a three-game set at Patriot League foe Holy Cross on April 13-14.