Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Navy
Baseball Opens Navy Series With Two Losses
4/30/2016 6:57:00 PM | Baseball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Navy's Luke Gillingham pitched a two-hit shutout to lead the Mids to a 2-0 victory over Bucknell in game one of Saturday's baseball doubleheader at Depew Field. In game two, the score was tied 4-4 through six innings of play, but Navy scored one run in the seventh and two more in the ninth on its way to a 7-4 victory over the Bison.
Bucknell (16-31, 7-11 PL) will enter Sunday's final day of the Patriot League regular season with a one-game lead on Lafayette for the fourth and final postseason spot. The Bison will need to finish one game ahead of the Leopards, and not in a tie with Army West Point, in order to secure a spot in the Patriot League Tournament. Bucknell could still finish as high as in a tie for third place with Lehigh.
Navy (35-11-1, 14-4 PL) will head to Sunday with a one-game lead on second-place Holy Cross. The Mids have already secured a top-two finish in the league standings.
Gillingham and Bucknell's Andrew Andreychik had a nice pitcher's duel in game one. Andreychik pitched his third complete game of the year, but was hurt by four errors behind him. He allowed an unearned run in the first inning and a one-out solo home run to Leland Saile in the sixth.
Andreychik struck out three, walked three and forced Navy to strand eight runners on base in the seven-inning game. His defense did help him out in the fourth inning when center fielder Brett Smith gunned down Matthew Wilcox at the plate and when catcher Jon Mayer threw out Connor Deneen trying to steal in the fifth.
Andreychik also worked out of a situation in the third when two batters reached via errors and were stranded in scoring position. He struck out Adrian Chinnery and got Saile to ground out to end the threat.
Danny Rafferty (triple in the first) and Mayer (leadoff double in the fifth) had Bucknell's only hits against Gillingham. The Bison had a good threat to score in the fifth as Alex O'Neill followed Mayer's double by reaching on an error. A Luke Johnson bunt moved them into scoring position. Tommy Pennington tried a squeeze bunt, but Mayer was out at home and Brett Smith, who saw his 22-game hitting streak come to an end, grounded out to end the frame.
Bucknell had another chance to score in the sixth when Joe Ogren drew a leadoff walk and Rafferty followed with a hit by pitch. Ogren advanced to third on a fly ball by Spencer Stokes, but Gillingham struck out Sam Clark and got Mayer to fly out to end the frame.
Gillingham (8-2), who pitched his fourth shutout of the season, struck out six and walked two in his eighth complete game.
Game two was a higher scoring affair as Navy took a 4-0 lead in the third inning. All four runs came with two outs against Bison starter Connor Van Hoose. The big blow in the frame was a Travis Blue two-run homer.
Bucknell answered back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth as four of the first five batters in the frame recorded hits, knocking Navy starter George Coughlin from the game. Stokes had an RBI double in the inning, while Mayer and Mark Powell had RBI singles.
The Bison tied the score in the bottom of the sixth when Clark reached on a leadoff single to left-center. Mayer followed with a grounder to short that had the potential to be a double play, but the throw to second was wide. Mike Korchak bunted them into scoring position and Clark came home with the tying run on a Powell ground out to first.
Navy took advantage of a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh. After a sac bunt, Robert Currie's RBI single through the left side plated Wilcox with the go-ahead run. Currie was thrown out at first by Clark after taking too big of a turn towards second base.
The Mids then added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth.
Van Hoose pitched 4.0 innings in his fifth start of the year. He retired the side in order in the fourth before giving way to Tommy Gambon (0-1) to start the fifth. Gambon was perfect in the fifth and sixth innings, but departed after issuing the leadoff walk in the seventh.
Mike Castellani came on and logged 2.0 innings, including a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Hunter Robichaux then got the final out in the ninth.
Navy reliever Jett Meenach (1-0) was strong in his three innings of work. He allowed three hits and two walks before giving way to Andrew Bartek, who struck out five and allowed just one hit over the final 2.2 innings for his first save of the year.
Bucknell out-hit Navy 11-9 in the nightcap with eight of the nine Bison starters recording at least one hit. Ogren led the way with a 3-for-5 performance, while Pennington added a pair of hits from the No. 9 hole in the lineup.
Prior to the game Bucknell's eight seniors – Andreychik, Dan Keller, Max Kra, Mayer, Ogren, Pennington, Stokes and Austin Zimmerman – were honored during Senior Day ceremonies.
Bucknell and Navy will conclude their four-game series Sunday with another doubleheader at noon. It will be Gene Depew Day as members of the longtime Bison coach's family will be on hand as his jersey will be retired during a pregame ceremony.
