BRONX, N.Y. – Posting as many walks as it had hits to create offense with a freshman dealing early on the mound, the Navy baseball team notched its first road win of the season with an 11-7 victory over Fordham Wednesday afternoon at Houlihan Park in the Bronx, N.Y.
Capping off a three-day stay in New York City that saw the Midshipmen visit the 9/11 Memorial, MLB Headquarters and Yankee Stadium, Navy was led by three-hit performances from
Jack Killelea and
Ty DePerno and
Victor Izquierdo's four RBI. The Midshipmen also set the tone on the mound with
Mikey Plummer allowing just one run over 4.2 innings in his first college start.
Navy grabbed a quick 1-0 lead over the Rams in the first when Izquierdo worked a two-out walk with the bases loaded after an earlier Fordham error extended the inning, while
Brock Murtha added to the lead in top of the second when he drove in
Chris Klug from third base on a single.
The Mids continued its offensive start with two more runs in the third, as a pair of singles to begin the frame put Killelea on third base to score on Izquierdo's ensuing sacrifice fly while
Evan Brown's single plated DePerno to push the edge to 4-0, while Plummer racked up his third-straight shutout inning during the home half of the frame.
A five-run fourth inning put the Mids well in front, as a one-out RBI single from DePerno to knock in
Andrew Manning kicked it off, followed by Izquierdo's double into the gap to drive in Killelea, a balk to plate DePerno while
Chris Klug's two-run single up the middle scored two more to move the Navy edge to 9-0. Fordham got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with Andrew Kanellis' single to drive across Matt Dieguez and an RBI double in the sixth inning from Tommy McAndrews plated Kanellis to make it 9-2.
The Mids broke through again in the seventh when
Henry Mitchell singled to lead off the frame then used a Murtha base-on-balls and two passed balls to advance home, while
Victor Izquierdo's bases-loaded walk later on put the score at 11-2 Navy.
Fordham clipped the Mids' lead in the bottom of the frame with Madden Ocko's RBI double and Kanellis' two-run home run, making it 11-5 Navy, while Ocko's eighth-inning ground-rule double and Dieguez's RBI groundout right after cut it to an 11-7 score, but
Landon Kruer then came in and retired five of the next six Fordham batters to secure Navy's third-straight victory.
Plummer finished his outing with a pair of strikeouts in his 4.2 innings while allowing five hits, with
Ryan Bibb following for an inning and nabbing the winning decision,
Owen Beisty and
John Carroll both recording an out,
Jackson Beattie going one frame and Kruer striking out one in his 1.2-inning appearance.
Jason Rodarte suffered the loss after going two frames in the start for Fordham, allowing four runs (two earned) while punching out two. Connor Haywood then gave up five runs in his 1.1 innings, Chase Hanawalt went 0.2 innings, Koen Smith pitched two scoreless frames, Beau Elson recorded one out, Anthony Scarlata tossed 1.2 shutout innings and Gannon Brady handled the final three outs.
Coach Chuck Ristano Comments
"Today was clearly a good showing from our offense. Most of our runs were a product of a solid offensive approach, our willingness to be aggressive on the bases and some opportunistic two-strike hitting. There are a lot of ways to win games, and, while we needed to be cleaner from the mound in the last few innings, getting a pitching performance like we got from Mike Plummer allowed us to really separate early. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into this weekend against Army."
"This trip to New York was a great bonding opportunity for the guys. We planted ourselves right in the middle of the city and really took in all it had to offer. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum was extremely impactful for the group. For a lot of us, it was our first time seeing it and I take for granted the fact that our players are too young to remember the feeling on that day. When you put this Navy uniform on, it represents athletic excellence but it also bears the biggest responsibility to our nation. It sounds hyperbolic, but experiencing the museum with our guys and reliving some of my feelings from September 11th was very emotional. It's good to stop and reflect sometimes about the good in our nation, and our players are a walking representation of that 365 days a year."
"All focus shifts to Army now. It's a championship series in every sense and we're hungry to bring that Star back to Annapolis. You can throw every stat and record out the window when we play each other. It's going to be wildly competitive and we'll be prepared."
Game Notes
• Navy is now 15-16 in the all-time series with Fordham.
• Killelea's three hits marked a career high, while Izquierdo's four RBI also set a career high.
• Brown extended his hit streak to six games.
• Izquierdo and Murtha have extended their on-base streaks to 10 and nine games, respectively.
• Navy's 11 walks drawn are the most since an 11-walk contest against Lehigh on April 20, 2024.
Up Next
Navy will open the three-game Star Series with Army on Saturday, as the two rivals kick off Patriot League play with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
