Army West Point Athletics
Lafayette Tops Army 7-3 To Win Patriot League Championship
May 13, 2007 | Baseball
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. Kevin Reese pitched into the ninth inning and regular season Patriot League champion and tournament host Lafayette benefitted from four Army fielding errors as the Leopards slipped past Army 7-3 Sunday afternoon at Class of 1978 Stadium to capture the 2007 Patriot League Championship.
Lafayette had defeated the Black Knights 8-3 during Saturday’s first game of the Patriot League Championship Series and entered Sunday needing to win one of a possible two games to clinch the title. The Leopards needed just one additional contest to earn their first Patriot title, defeating Army for the sixth straight time this season.
Serving as the visiting team in Sunday’s game, the Leopards raced out to a quick 2-0 lead, scoring two runs on four hits in the top of the first inning against Army starter Drew Clothier. But the Black Knights battled back, tying the score in the bottom of the second inning on run-scoring singles by J.P. Polchinski and Andy Ernesto.
Army’s defense betrayed Clothier in the middle innings as Lafayette plated an unearned run in the fourth inning to move ahead 3-2. The Leopards blew open the contest with four more unearned runs in the fifth. The Black Knights committed three fielding errors during the stanza, including back-to-back miscues to open the inning. Run-scoring singles by Daniel Bierce, Chris Luick and Tom Hayes highlighted the uprising for the Leopards as they opened a comfortable 7-2 advantage.
Army (25-23-1), which advanced to its third Patriot League Championship Series in four years with a 5-3 Elimination Game victory over Navy on Saturday, could not break through again opposite Reese until the ninth inning, despite placing at least one runner on base in each of the final six innings. The Black Knights threatened mildly in the ninth, chasing Reese after doubles by Polchinski and Ernesto sliced the deficit to 7-3.
Lafayette reliever Brad Woodfield came on to finish things off though, striking out Barnes Connell and retiring Milan Dinga on a groundout to end the game after Tony Capozzi’s single to left had placed runners at first and third with one out.
Reese (7-1) allowed nine hits and three runs over his 8.1 innings of work. He struck out five and walk one. Clothier (4-4), meanwhile suffered the loss for the Black Knights, surrendering 11 hits, but only two earned runs during his six-inning stint. Ben Mayhew tossed three shutout innings in support of Clothier.
Chris Simmons went 3-for-3, joining Polchinski and Ernesto as Army players to record multiple-hit showings.
“I’d like to complement Lafayette,” said Army head coach Joe Sottolano. “They played well all year long and did the things they needed to do in order to win a championship. I thought guys fought really hard all year and battled, but we came up short. When you get to this point, you want to play well, and I don’t think we played well in this series. We didn’t play our best games this weekend and you need to do that if you are going to win a championship. You don’t get a second chance. I thought today, in particular, we hit the ball hard at people. We got some hits but we just couldn’t put them together in a timely fashion.
“I’d like to thank the captains of our team and the seniors for an outstanding four years. They helped to put our program on the map and helped direct us into the future, where we’re going to continue to do great things. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to spend time with that group.”
Postgame Games: Army suffered its first loss in a Patriot League Championship Series ... the Black Knights had prevailed in each of their four previous PLCS appearances, winning in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2005 ... Army entered each of those series as the No. 1 seed ... Cole White’s hitting streak was halted at 13 games ... senior Ben Mayhew ran his scoreless appearance streak to five games ... Mayhew closed his career by firing 11.1 innings of shutout ball over the season’s final three weeks ... Army closed its season with a team batting average of .265 and a team earned run average of 3.77 ... it marked the fourth straight season in which the Black Knights posted a team ERA of under 4.00 ... White finished the season with a .408 batting average ... that figure ranks fifth on Army’s career list ... he is all but assured of winning the Patriot League batting crown ... it would mark the sixth time that an Army player has captured the Patriot League batting title ... Milan Dinga closed his career with 257 hits, a record for both Army and the Patriot League ... Dinga also leads both entities with 363 career total bases ... Nick Hill closed out his Army career with a won-loss record of 33-12 (.733) ... he stands as Army’s career leader in mound victories in the modern era and the Patriot League’s all-time leader ... Hill, White and Andy Ernesto were named to the Patriot League’s All-Tournament team ... in addition to Hill, Dinga and Mayhew, two other seniors played their last game in the Black, Gold and Gray second baseman Barnes Connell, catcher Tommy Halverson.
