ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Down to its last strike twice in the ninth, the Navy baseball team (10-10, 3-1 PL) clawed out the 4-3 comeback win over Bucknell (8-11, 0-1 PL) in a 10-inning contest Friday evening at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
After two-strike RBI singles from Evan Brown and Ivan Aguirre in the ninth helped the Midshipmen force extra innings against the Bison, rookie sensation Ty DePerno tallied his second walk-off in less than two weeks by smoking a 10th-inning single to bring home Brock Murtha and finish off the Navy rally.
 
In a battle of the aces, Navy's Tyler Grenn and Bucknell's Tyler O'Neill both worked around danger to post zeros over the first five frames, as Bucknell left runners on in each of the first four innings while Navy stranded Henry Mitchell at second base to end the third.
 
Bucknell finally broke through in the sixth inning, as a leadoff single from Michael Trommer put him on base for Luke Nascimento's eventual two-out, with Trommer racing home to give the Bison the lead.
 
The eighth inning saw a pair of one-out Bucknell singles finally knock out Grenn, while a pair of ensuing walks brought home Ryan Facinelli to extend the lead to 2-0. Navy answered right back with their first run of the game in the bottom of the eighth, as a pinch-hit single from Owen Peterson and Tyler Bouchard's double put Peterson on third base for Chris Klug's sacrifice fly.
 
Bucknell regained a two-run advantage in the top of the ninth as Billy Fluharty's leadoff single, a Navy error and two groundouts brought him around to score the Bison's third run of the evening. The Mids then got their own leadoff single from Jack Killelea and Andrew Manning worked a two-out walk to bring up Brown, who laced an 0-2 single up the middle to plate Killelea and make it a one-run game. Aguirre then found himself in a 1-2 count and followed Brown's lead by lining a two-strike single into center and scoring Noah Ditas for the game-tying run.
 
With Landon Kruer coming on to retire the Bison in order in the top of the 10th, aided by an unbelievable defensive play from Murtha up the middle to deny Nascimento a hit, Navy found itself with the winning run on base again after Murtha walked and Killelea was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the extra frame. On the second pitch he saw from Jonathan Adelmann, DePerno then ripped a ball over left-fielder Chris Morabito's head to drive in Murtha and hand the Mids' their third-straight victory.
 
Getting a no-decision, Grenn went 7.1 innings and allowed two runs on eight hits while striking out three. Owen Beisty then faced two batters before Adyn Lucero gave up one run on one hit in 1.2 innings of work, while Kruer notched one strikeout in his frame of relief to earn the win.
 
For O'Neill, the eight-inning outing saw him hold Navy to just one run on four hits and punching out five, while Adelmann was handed the loss after surrendering three runs on four hits in his 1.1 innings out of the bullpen.
 
Coach Chuck Ristano Comments
"We're really proud of the grit our guys continue to show. For two consecutive starts now, Grenn has pitched well enough to win us the game and, unfortunately, he doesn't have anything to show for it, but you can't understate how important his performance was. It didn't start very clean, but he bit down and was outstanding today - both keeping us in the game and giving us some serious length at the front end of a four-game weekend."
 
"I'm really happy for Peterson and Aguirre, those guys come to work every day and grind their butts off. It was great for them to deliver big hits for us when our backs were against the wall a bit. Before the 10th inning started, I kind of looked at DePerno and - in my own wise-guy way - asked him if he was going to do anything today … and he found a way to get it done again."
 
"This is a fun group to be around. It gets tense and we get frustrated, but I think for everyone in our dugout, there wasn't a single moment when we didn't believe we were going to win that game. Wins like these say a lot about this group's character and their evolving maturity.  We took some gut punches throughout the game, but we just stayed the course and kept competing. That's a really important trait for this team. We'll enjoy this for a minute, but tomorrow is going to come quickly and we've got two very important games to play."
 
Game Notes
• Navy is now 97-86-1 in the all-time series with Bucknell.
• The Mids are now 1-1 in extra-inning contests this season.
• Brown extended his hit streak to a team-best 11 games, while Killelea moved his hitting streak to 10-straight contests.
• DePerno improved his on-base streak to eight games.
• Grenn has now thrown a quality start in four of his six appearances this season.
• Grenn's 117 pitches marked the second-highest single-game total of his career.
 
Up Next
Navy and Bucknell continue the series on Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader in Annapolis.