Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Navy
Baseball Falls Twice to Navy, 5-3 & 13-6, to Conclude PL Semifinal Series
5/15/2016 7:09:00 PM | Baseball
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Fourth-seeded Bucknell entered Sunday needing one win against Navy to capture the best-of-three Patriot League Semifinal Series, but the top-seeded Mids won both games at Max Bishop Stadium to advance to next week's Patriot League Championship Series against second-seeded Holy Cross. Navy held off the Bison to win game one 5-3 and then posted a 13-6 victory in the nightcap.
Bucknell (18-34), which scored four of its nine runs on Sunday in the ninth innings, entered the day on a two-game winning streak against Navy (40-13-1) after winning Saturday's game one by a 9-3 score following a victory in the regular-season finale two weeks ago.
Brett Smith had five total hits in the two games on Sunday and finished the season with a team-best .343 batting average. He had seven hits overall in the Patriot League Semifinal Series. Joe Ogren was 1-for-3 in both games and drove in his team-best 38th and 39th runs of the year in game two. By starting at second base in Sunday's nightcap he broke the program record for career starts (190).
Robert Currie was 4-for-9 with five runs scored in Sunday's doubleheader to lead Navy, while Leland Saile drove in five runs and Sean Trent four.
In game one, Navy scored four runs on five hits against Bison starter Jeff Gottesman (2-5), who issued six walks and hit three batters with pitches in his five-plus innings. He worked out of a number of pressure situations early, stranding eight Mids on base over the first four innings while allowing just one run over that span. Navy's leadoff hitter reached in five of the six innings Gottesman started.
The score was tied 1-1 entering the fifth when Sean Trent led off with a single, advanced to second and later scored on a two-out single by Adrian Chinnery to give the Mids the lead for good.
Navy, which left 14 runners on base, tacked on two more runs in the sixth when Logan Knowles led off with a walk and scored on a triple by Currie. After Gottesman walked Travis Blue, Danny Rafferty came in to pitch from his left field position. He got out of the first-and-third with none out situation allowing only a sac fly.
Rafferty pitched two outs into the eighth inning, allowing only one more run on a seventh-inning homer by Leland Saile, his fourth against Bucknell pitching in 2016.
Tommy Gambon entered the game in the eighth inning with two runners in scoring position and retired four of the five batters he faced to hold Navy at five runs.
Bucknell, which was the designated home team, plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth to cut into the four-run deficit. Sam Clark had an RBI double and Jon Mayer followed with an RBI single up the middle. Ogren's one-out double knocked Navy starter Noah Song from the game two outs shy of a complete game. Sam Sorenson got the final two outs. Song (9-2) allowed four hits and two runs while striking out six in his 8.1 innings of work.
Bucknell did commit five errors in game one, but did not allow an unearned run. The Bison pitchers also allowed 11 Mids to reach base via walk and hit by pitch.
Smith had two of Bucknell's six hits in the first game of the day. The Mids and Bison both had six hits in the contest. Trent and Currie had two hits apiece for Navy.
In game two, Navy had five multi-run innings as Bucknell used six pitchers in the contest. The Mids scored their 13 runs on 17 hits, while the Bison had six runs on 11 hits.
Navy opened up a 5-0 lead through two innings. Bucknell was able to cut it to 5-2 on a two-run double by Luke Johnson in the top of the fourth, but the Mids scored three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to expand their lead to nine runs.
The Bison plated two runs in the seventh on a sac fly by Ogren and an RBI ground out by Spencer Stokes, while an Ogren sac fly and a Stokes single pushed home two more runs in the ninth.
Bucknell's offense was led by the top portion of its lineup as Smith, Rafferty, Ogren and Stokes – the top four hitters - were 8-for-18 with four RBIs and four runs scored.
Dan Keller (3-6) started game two on the mound for Bucknell and pitched one batter into the second inning. Connor Van Hoose and Mike Castellani pitched 2.2 innings apiece out of the bullpen, while Hunter Robichaux, Max Kra and Austin Zimmerman were not charged with an earned run over the final 1.2 innings.
George Coughlin (6-1) started and pitched the first 3.1 innings for Navy. He allowed three hits and two runs, while Kyle Condry pitched the next 4.2 innings yielding five hits and two runs. Andrew Bartek started the ninth inning and got one out before giving way to Sam Sorenson for the final two outs.
Navy left 10 more runners on base in game two, while Bucknell left nine on base. Both teams committed one error.
Bucknell's eight seniors – Andrew Andreychik, Dan Keller, Max Kra, Jon Mayer, Joe Ogren, Tommy Pennington, Spencer Stokes and Austin Zimmerman – concluded their careers with 89 victories over the last four years.
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