WEST POINT, N.Y. – After battling back from a 4-0 first-inning deficit, the Navy baseball team fell just short of completing the comeback, getting walked off by rival Army, 5-4, in the 10th inning of Friday afternoon's Star Series opener at Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field.
While
Andrew Manning's three-hit day and
Victor Izquierdo's booming seventh-inning home run powered the Midshipmen (15-10, 2-5 PL) to erase the early deficit created by Carter Hewitt's three-run homer in the first, the Black Knights held on to take the series' opening game when a 10th-inning sacrifice bunt by David Dubrule was thrown away and JT Craig came across for the walk-off run. The weekend series is part of the 2025-26 all-sport Star Series presented by USAA.
Army struck early after a two-out fielding error by the Mids prolonged the first inning, as Thomas Schreck's RBI single in the left-side hole opened the scoring while Carter Hewitt broke the game open with a three-run homer into the left-center power alley, extending it to 4-0 Black Knights.
Navy answered right back in the second after
Patrick Walsh and
Jake Hooten got on base, with fellow rookie
Will Howard poking a single through the right side to plate Walsh and cut the Army lead to 4-1. Navy starter
Brady Bendik also settled in after a 31-pitch opening frame by pitching seven scoreless innings the rest of the way, including a six-pitch fourth inning and four 1-2-3 frames.
The Mids continued to chip away in the fifth when
Tyler Cripe and Izquierdo single to put two on, with Manning following it up by lining a double down the right-field line to score Cripe while
Ty DePerno roped a single into right two pitches later to bring in Izquierdo and make it a one-run game. Izquierdo then evened the score in the seventh when he launched a line-drive, 427-foot solo homer off of Cullum Hall beyond the left-field wall, forcing Army starter Andrew Berg from the contest.
After
Tyler Grenn relieved Bendik and sat down the Black Knights in order in the ninth to send the game to extras, Navy had a chance to take its first lead of the day in the top of the 10th. Putting two runners on via Manning and DePerno singles, pinch-hitter
Evan Brown sacrificed the pair over to put the go-ahead run 90 feet from home, but Thomas Schreck then snared a groundout and Robbie Penswick got the inning-ending strikeout to thwart the rally.
The Black Knights capitalized on that immediately, as pinch-hitter John McKillop laced an opposite-field double down the left line to lead off the bottom of the 10th before being lifted for Craig. Craig then rounded third and crossed home on a Navy throwing error off of Dubrule's sacrifice bunt, securing the 5-4 walk-off victory.
Berg closed his day with four runs allowed on eight hits, striking out five in 6.1 frames, while Penswick picked up the win by striking out three in 3.2 shutout innings.
Bendik finished with four unearned runs on three hits over his eight frames, allowing just two walks to his 11 strikeouts, while Grenn allowed just the one hit in his inning-plus of action but suffered the loss.
Game Notes
• Navy is now 136-137 in the all-time series with Army.
• Manning's three hits matched a career high, the fifth time he has tallied three hits in his career.
• Izquierdo's homer was his third of the season and sixth of his career.
• Bendik has gone six-or-more innings in each of his last four starts and has tallied nine-plus strikeouts in each of his last three starts.
Up Next
Navy and Army continue the Star Series with a 3:05 p.m. first pitch on Saturday.
