KINSTON, N.C. – Finding itself in another pitchers' duel, the Navy baseball team (0-4) could not hold on late as it suffered a 3-2 loss to Air Force (1-5) in Friday's Freedom Classic Opener at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C.
 
With sophomore Brady Bendik and the Falcons' Dylan Rogers battling through the early innings, the Midshipmen answered quickly after Air Force opened the scoring in the sixth but were unable to generate further offense to match the Falcons' lineup.
 
Bendik and Rogers traded scoreless frames for the first five innings, with both right-handers escaping jams that saw runners on second base in the third frame.
 
The Falcons broke through in the top of the sixth when a two-out walk from Tripp Garrish kick-started their offense, while singles from Luke Elmore and TJ Oster brought Garrish in for the opening tally, but Bendik worked out of further danger by inducing the Christian Taylor flyout. Navy responded in the bottom of the frame with a two-out double by junior Brock Murtha, while a throwing error allowed Murtha to score and a fielding error on the next play brought in sophomore Andrew Manning for the go-ahead run.
 
Air Force evened the game the very next inning as a leadoff error, a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch put Cam Anstey on third base for Alex Adams' single down the left-field line, as Anstey trotted home to make it 2-2, but freshman righty Kody Clancy punched out a pair of Falcons to end the frame.
 
A pair of two-out walks in the eighth put the go-ahead runner on second base for Navy, but Air Force's Patrick Davidson got the flyout to stop the threat.
 
After Ben Niednagel walked to start the ninth, Adams bunted him over to set up Walker Zapp's double to right field, bringing Niednagel home for the eventual winning run, while Davidson retired the Mids in order in the bottom of the inning to secure his team's first win of the season.
 
Rogers finished with nine strikeouts over his seven innings, allowing two unearned runs, while Smelcer pitched a scoreless 0.2 innings and Davidson notched the win after striking out one batter in his 1.1 frames.
 
For Bendik, he wrapped up his quality start with five strikeouts while allowing one run over six frames. Junior righty Jackson Beattie followed by facing two batters and getting one out, while Clancy pitched two innings and striking out three in his two innings despite suffering the loss and senior Landon Kruer struck out two in 0.2 innings.
 
Coach Chuck Ristano Comments
"This was another extremely tight game that we, unfortunately, found ourselves on the wrong side of. These are games that, as the season goes on and our team grows, we need to learn to win and flip the result. This is a skill that we need to acquire. It's also a growth opportunity and we have to learn from this early stretch of struggle. One or two pitches going the other way would dramatically change the outcome of the game and we are desperate to get on the right side of that."
 
"Definitely a bitter pill to swallow as I feel like we pitched and played pretty well again on the defensive side of the ball, but we don't have anything to show for it. I thought that we pitched well enough to win, but credit to Air Force for being opportunistic and making the big pitch and big swing when they needed to. Their pitchers did a really nice job, but we have to find a way to create more traffic on the bases and get into our offense. Our ability to score and create threatening at-bats has simply not been good enough. These performances are not indicative of what we are capable of and we will go back to work tomorrow with a clear mind and renewed focus."
 
"When you're struggling to score runs, every pitch you throw and every play you ask your defense to make feels amplified, and it's a lot of unnecessary pressure applied. One or two pitches (not unlike the Richmond games) decided the game today, but, in the bigger picture, the performance of our lineup has got to give us a better effort if we're going to get where we want to. Every result matters but, in these early season contests, I'm desperate to find and cultivate our team's winning personality and to help develop some of our inexperience into a more battle-tested, winning team.  We have to be better and I need to be better for us. We will get there."
 
Game Notes
• Navy is now 32-34 in the all-time series with Air Force.
• Friday marked the fifth time in Bendik's career he has gone six-plus innings in a start.
• Murtha is now 24-for-68 during the month of February for his Navy career.
 
Up Next
Navy and Air Force are set for a 2 p.m. first pitch Saturday in the second game of the series.