ANNAPOLIS, Md. – It was a tale of two games for the Navy baseball team Saturday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium, as Brady Bendik pitched his second-straight complete-game shutout to lead the Midshipmen to a 4-0 win in the opening game with Lafayette, but the Leopards responded with an offensive outbreak in the nightcap to beat the Mids, 11-5, and split the doubleheader.
 
Holding Lafayette to just two hits in his seven scoreless innings, Bendik was backed up by a two-hit, two RBI game from Andrew Manning in the weekend opener, while Ty DePerno's three-hit performance in the second game proved not enough for Navy as five different Leopards had multi-hit contests in the nightcap.
 
Game One Recap
Navy got off to a great start when Ivan Aguirre tripled to lead off the bottom of the first, with Aguirre coming in to score easily soon after on Jack Killelea's hustle double into the left-field corner, giving the Mids the early lead. Mason Ceccarelli added on an inning later when he walked, advanced on a passed ball and raced home on Henry Mitchell's single up the middle to make it 2-0 Navy.
 
Manning gave Bendik more insurance in the fifth when he smoked a two-out double following a Killelea double and a Ty DePerno walk earlier in the frame, scoring both to grow the edge to 4-0.
 
Bendik used the early support by retiring nine of his first 10 batters faced and did not give up his first hit of the game until the start of the fourth inning, but stranded that runner and retired the next 11 batters before surrendering a single to Michael Zarrillo with two outs in the seventh inning. The righty then struck out Jack Mislan on three swinging strikes to close out the game and pick his fourth-straight winning decision.
 
Using 89 pitches, Bendik allowed just the two hits and a walk over his seven frames while punching out seven Leopards. On the other side, Trace Florio also threw a complete game but suffered the loss after giving up four runs (three earned) on nine hits in six innings.
 
Game Two Recap
The Mids looked to try to repeat their game-one performance in the nightcap when Aguirre walked and Killelea singled to start the bottom of the first, with DePerno's single then plating Aguirre for another 1-0 Navy lead, while starter Tyler Grenn held Lafayette scoreless in the first two innings.
 
Wanting to avoid the sweep, the Leopards' offense got to work in the third as a double and flyout put Bode Grieve on third with one gone for Ethan Swidler's sacrifice fly, bringing in Grieve for Lafayette's first run of the afternoon. Zarrillo then put his team ahead in the fourth inning with a three-run home run after Easton Brenner and Matt Colella singled to start the frame, while a Liam Ebbs single into center field later in the inning scored Teddy Cashman to make it 5-1 Lafayette.
 
Navy answered back in the home half of the fourth by loading the bases and then used a Ceccarelli walk and a Mitchell hit-by-pitch to knock in two runs, cutting the Lafayette edge to 5-3. The Leopards did not wait long to regrow their lead, as Colella and Mislan both poked RBI singles and Grieve later drove in Zarrillo on a sacrifice fly to make it 8-3.
 
The Mids tried to chip away at the Lafayette lead, as Aguirre continued his strong day by doubling home Chris Klug in the sixth and Klug lifted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh to score Evan Brown and cut it to 8-5 Lafayette.
 
After Colella notched an RBI single and Mislan doubled in two runs in the ninth to make it 11-5 Lafayette, the Mids attempted to rally when Brown led off the bottom of the ninth with a double, but Mike Romano retired the next three Navy batters to close out the Leopards' win and register his third save of the season.
 
Making the start, Tristan Helmick went six innings and held Navy to four runs (three earned) on eight hits to pick up the winning decision, while Romano allowed just one run in his three-inning save. On Navy's side, Grenn got the loss after giving up eight runs (seven earned) in five innings, while Adyn Lucero surrendered three runs in the ninth after three scoreless relief innings before that and John Carroll recorded the final three outs for the Mids.
 
Game Notes
• Navy moved to 104-54-2 in the all-time series with Lafayette.
• Bendik is the first Navy pitcher to throw complete-game shutouts in back-to-back starts since Noah Song on April 20 and April 27, 2019.
• Bendik has held the opposition to just one walk in each of his last four starts, winning all four games.
• Lucero's three inning pitched set a new career high for the righty.
• Navy's 13 hits in Saturday's nightcap match the team's season high.
• Manning recorded two-hit performances in both ends of the doubleheader.
 
Up Next
Navy will host Lehigh for a Sunday doubleheader, with first pitch set for 1:00 p.m. in Annapolis.