ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Building up an early lead with nine runs over the first three innings, the Navy baseball team (20-17, 11-7 PL) used its bullpen and a late home run to hold on for an 11-7 win at Lafayette (11-26, 7-8 PL) in the series finale Monday afternoon at Kamine Stadium.
 
Claiming both the weekend and the season series over the Leopards with Monday's victory, the Midshipmen saw Brock Murtha's three-hit performance pace a lineup that featured five Mids tallying multi-hit contests, while Landon Kruer shut the door in relief for the second-straight game to keep Navy atop the Patriot League standings.
 
Navy struck the opening blow in the first inning when a Murtha double put Mason Ceccarelli on third base for Evan Brown's sacrifice fly, while an Andrew Manning groundout drove in Murtha to make it 2-0. Lafayette answered right back, tying the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the first with an Easton Brenner RBI double and a Matt Colella sacrifice fly.
 
The Mids continued their strong start in the second inning, as a wild pitch brought in Tyler Bouchard to give Navy the lead back and a Murtha single plated Tristan Rucker to extend the edge to 4-2, while a five-run third inning saw Rucker rip a two-run single, a run-scoring error on a Henry Mitchell single and Ceccarelli single home two more runs to swell the Mids' advantage to 9-2.
 
The Leopards chipped away in the bottom of the third when Brenner tripled to score Alex Barrist and Brenner himself then came home on Colella's RBI groundout to cut the margin to 9-4 Navy, while a Liam Ebbs solo home run in the fourth made it a 9-5 ballgame.
 
After a two-out RBI single from Ethan Swidler in the sixth shortened the lead to 9-6, Manning smacked a double to start the seventh and eventually scored on Victor Izquierdo's single up the middle to grow the edge, 10-6, With Lafayette scratching across another run in the bottom of the seventh on Jack Mislan's RBI single, the Mids went to Kruer midway through the eighth and the closer struck out Colella to strand the bases loaded.
 
With a leadoff, 418-foot homer from Manning kicking off the ninth inning to make it 11-7, Kruer then got two quick outs before bouncing back from a Bode Grieve walk by throwing out Ebbs on a bunt back to the mound, securing his second save in less than 24 hours and his seventh total save of the season.
 
Following a four-inning start from Kody Clancy that allowed five runs on five hits, John Carroll relieved him by limiting the Leopards to two runs (one earned) while striking out three to notch his first collegiate win, while Kruer struck out three in 1.2 no-hit innings.
 
Making the start for Lafayette, Tristan Helmick gave up seven runs in his 2.1 innings to receive the loss, while Ben Waterman allowed three runs (two earned) in his four frames out of the bullpen and Mike Romano surrendered just one run in his 2.2 innings with four strikeouts.
 
Game Notes
• Navy now holds a 106-55-2 record over Lafayette in the all-time series.
• Navy's 13 hits on Monday matched a season high
• Murtha's three hits set a season high for the infielder.
• Manning has hit a double and homer in each of his last two games.
 
Up Next
Navy will continue league play on Wednesday with a 3:30 p.m. contest at Bucknell.