ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Highlighted by a tournament-record 11 runs in the eighth inning, the Navy baseball team (26-23) fought back from a five-run deficit to claim an 18-11 game one victory over rival Army (23-23) in its semifinal series of the 2025 Patriot League Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
 
Rallying for the third-straight game and putting themselves one win away from a second-consecutive berth in the Patriot League Championship Series, the Midshipmen were led offensively by Brock Murtha's four-hit, five-RBI contest while four other Mids collected multi-hit games, helping Navy tally season highs in runs (18) and hits (15). The 18 runs are also a Navy postseason record, surpassing the 16 runs the Mids scored in the 2003 league finals opener against Bucknell.
 
Navy took an early lead when Mason Ceccarelli led off the bottom of the first with a walk and eventually came in on a Ty DePerno sacrifice fly, but Army answered right back with a two-out rally in the top of the second, as Coleson Titus ripped a two-run double to give the Black Knights a 2-1 edge. Army added to its lead in the next inning, as Justin Lehman and Jack Quinlan roped back-to-back RBI doubles in the third to make it 4-1 Black Knights.
 
The Mids finally got back on the board when they loaded the bases in the fifth to bring up Evan Brown, who punched a single into right field to plate Tyler Bouchard and cut the Army lead to 4-2. Wasting no time responding, Army re-extended its lead to 7-2 with four doubles in the sixth, as Thomas Schreck drove in two runners on his double and then came in on Chris Barr's double.
 
The bottom of the sixth saw Navy break out for a five-spot to even the game, as the Mids put two runners on to start the frame and then got an RBI single from Victor Izquierdo and an RBI double from Henry Mitchell to get the rally rolling, while a Ceccarelli RBI double later in the frame then set up Murtha's two-run single into the right-center gap to tie the score at 7-7.
 
A Navy fielding error and Quinlan's RBI single down the third-base line in the seventh quickly scored Billy Parker and gave the lead back to Army, with Robbie Penswick then sitting the Mids down in order in the bottom of the seventh.
 
With Mitchell and Bouchard both walking to begin the bottom of the eighth and Ceccarelli laying down a bunt single to loaded the bases, Murtha kicked off the tournament-record inning by driving in Mitchell on an infield single to tie the game again and Evan Brown followed with his own single to plate Bouchard for the go-ahead run, while a DePerno hit-by-pitch, an Andrew Manning walk, an Army error on a Jack Killelea fielder's choice, an Izquierdo walk, another Mitchell walk and a Bouchard single all drove in runs to make it 15-8. Murtha then ripped a two-run double and Brown plated Bouchard on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 18-8 heading into the ninth.
 
After John Carroll came on and got two outs while allowing two singles to start the ninth, the Black Knights put up a mini-rally of their own when Titus, Schreck and Barr all notched RBI singles to make it 18-11, but Carroll then coaxed Parker into a flyout to close out Navy's third-straight victory.
 
Getting the start for Navy, Brady Bendik went 5.2 innings, striking out six despite being on the hook for seven runs, while Spencer Stephens notched the win after holding Army to one unearned run in 2.1 innings of work and Carroll registered on strikeout in his frame of relief.
 
With Andrew Berg allowing five runs in his five-inning start, Penswick then pitched two innings and surrendered two runs and Kevin Reavey followed, giving up seven runs (six earned) without recording an out. Mark Abell then allowed two runs without recording an out as well, while Walker Calvo surrendered one unearned run in an inning of action.
 
Coach Chuck Ristano Comments
"Once again, it was a really good display of resilience from the fellas. A lot of things went wrong for us today and it clearly wasn't as clean as we'd like, but every game and every circumstance demands something different, and the fight never stops. Winning pretty or winning ugly is still winning and when you can score runs like we were able to today, it most certainly helps. In the eighth inning, there were a lot of free 90's but I thought, for the entire game, we were kind of on it at the plate and we felt like we'd eventually break through."

"We've talked a lot about the youth of this roster, but lately we've shown the maturity and resilience of an older team. The guys are proud of this trait and they should be. We'll get everything Army has tomorrow and it'll be another big test for us. Absolutely no chance they just roll over, so we'll be prepared to bring our best from the first pitch."
 
Game Notes
• Navy is now 136-134 in the all-time series with Army, winning the last four games between the rivals.
• The Mids' 11 runs in the eighth are the most by Navy in an inning since a 12-run seventh inning at Elon on Feb. 17, 2024.
• Murtha is now at 19 hit-by-pitches for the season, one shy of matching the Navy single-season record.
• Murtha's four hits matched his career high (Feb. 19, 2023 against Ohio).
• Ceccarelli, Mitchell and Bouchard all scored a career-high three runs on Saturday.
• Brown has posted three-straight multi-hit games.
• Bouchard has multiple hits in five of his last seven games played.
 
Up Next
Game 2 of the Patriot League semifinal series between Navy and Army is slated for 1 p.m. Sunday, with an if-necessary Game 3 scheduled to begin 40 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.