ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy baseball team (7-7) dropped the final game of its three-game series against Marist (6-5), 5-2, Sunday at Max Bishop Stadium. The Midshipmen loaded the bases three times in the contest, but were only able to push across two runs after stranding a total of 13 runners on base.
Alex Smith (Jr., Laguna Hills, Calif.) paced the Navy offense on the afternoon, going 2-for-3 with an RBI single and two walks.
Christian Policelli (Sr., Walkersville, Md.) tallied his team-leading eighth multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
On the mound,
Liam Golden (Fr., Springfield, Mass.) fell to 1-2 on the season after allowing two runs on four hits, in addition to walking two batters and striking out two, over four innings of work.
"We had the bases loaded in three different innings and really didn't get anything out of it," said head coach
Paul Kostacopoulos. "They (Marist) were just mentally tougher than us, they wanted to play and win that ball game more than we did. We had our opportunities. They just out toughed us, and that's why they won the game."
After trading scoreless frames for the first three innings, Navy opened the scoring in the contest in the bottom of the fourth when
Zach Stevens (Sr., Lexington, Mass.) brought home Policelli on a bases-loaded walk, giving the Mids a 1-0 lead.
However, over the next two innings, Marist responded with a rally that totaled five runs on six hits, taking a commanding 5-1 lead heading into the sixth.
Navy threatened over the next two innings, including an eighth inning rally that saw the Midshipmen load the bases with nobody out, forcing starter Alex Pansini (1-1) from the contest in favor of Drake Quinn, who was tasked with working out of the jam.
The junior right-hander did just that, striking out the next two batters before forcing a groundout to escape the inning without allowing a run, maintaining the Marist lead at 5-1 heading into the ninth.
After
Landon Kruer (Fr., Sellersburg, Ind.) came on to pitch a clean top of the ninth, the Mids rallied once again, loading the bases with two outs after
Eduardo Diaz (So., Miami, Fla.) reached on a throwing error and the pair of Policelli and
Joe Simourian (Sr., Andover, Mass.) each worked a walk.
After loading the bases, Smith came through with an RBI single to left that cut the Marist lead to 5-2, forcing Quinn from the game in favor of Nick Cantone.
Following the pitching change, Cantone faced off against pinch-hitter
Kyle Rausch (Jr., Middle Island, N.Y.), forcing the junior to sharply fly out to left for the final out of the game, securing the 5-2 victory for the Red Foxes.
Gene Napolitano and Gavin Noriega paced the Marist offense, tallying two hits and two RBI apiece, while Nathan Lincoln went 1-for-3 with two runs scored.
Pansini paced the Red Foxes' pitching effort, allowing just one unearned run on three hits over his seven innings of work. Cantone picked up his first save of the season after stifling the aforementioned rally by Navy in the ninth.
"One thing about baseball is that there's another game in 24 or 48 hours," Kostacopoulos continued. "We just have to do better, we've got to get in a flow of competing for nine innings. We had our chances, we just didn't have a lot of guys up there that were ready to go. That's what we've got to fix. We've got to fix that competition factor that leads to winning ball games."
UP NEXT
Navy will have the opportunity to bounce back quickly as it welcomes Massachusetts to Max Bishop Stadium 2 p.m. Tuesday. Following their contest against the Minutemen, the Midshipmen are slated to begin Patriot League play Friday as they travel to Lewisburg for a four-game series against Bucknell.
