Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Cincinnati
Army Falls In First Night Game At Doubleday Field
May 02, 2014 | Baseball
May 2, 2014
WEST POINT, N.Y. - On an historic night at Doubleday Field at Johnson Stadium, Cincinnati and Army combined for 26 hits in a 4-3 Bearcats victory.
Baseball was the first organized sport at West Point in 1890 and began playing games at its current location in 1909. A host of upgrades have been added over the years and Friday night, the latest was celebrated.
For the first time, Army played a night game and a crowd of 576 were treated to a great game.
While Army has utilized the state-of-the-art lighting system for practices and to finish games, Friday was the first contest that began under the lights.
West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, Jr., threw out the ceremonial first pitch and players, coaches and managers from the 2013 squad were presented with their championship rings following last year's Patriot League title.
Then, Cincinnati pushed across single runs in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings to improve to 17-26.
Army, which shared the regular season Patriot League title with Bucknell, is now 32-14.. The Black Knights will be the number two seed in the league semifinals and host Lehigh May 10-11.
The Black Knights racked up 16 hits, led by three from Daniel Cortes and Jacob Page. Every Army starting position played had at least one base hit.
"It was a great night," said Army interim head coach Matt Reid. "The field looks great with the lights on, the ring ceremony was outstanding and offensively we had a lot of hits. We just didn't get the runs in when we had them out there. We just have to figure out how to score those runs. Pitching we did a great job again, we just have to figure out how to score those runs and we had plenty of opportunities. We have to go back and find out why we didn't and fix it."
Nick Dignacco started on the mound for Army and threw five innings. He struck out five, walked three and allowed a pair of runs. Justin French gave up a pair of runs in his inning of work. Brian Hapeman fired two innings and Johnny Griffith one to close the game out.
Cincinnati jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Russell Clark grounded out with a runner on third.
Army had two runners on in the first when Cortes doubled and Patrick Mescher singled before a ground out ended the inning.
The Black Knights knotted the game in the bottom half of the second inning. With one out, Page and Grant Van Orden hit consecutive singles. Ben Smith worked a walk after being in an 0-2 hole. Kris Lindner then lifted a sacrifice fly to make it a 1-1 contest.
Cincinnati, which competes in the American Athletic Conference, took its second lead in the fourth inning. Devin Wenzel led off the inning with a single, moved to second on a one-out sacrifice bunt and scored on a single up the middle by Russell Clark for a 2-1 advantage.
Army answered in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Van Orden and Smith hit back-to-back singles. Lindner singled to load the bases. Cortes grounded out to score Van Orden to tie the game at 2.
The Black Knights took their first lead in the fifth inning. With one out, Jensen bunted for a basehit and took second on an overthrow. Harold Earls then delivered a single to left for a 3-2 Army lead.
Cincinnati quickly tied the game again when Devin Wenzel hit a solo home run to begin the sixth inning.
Wenzel put the Bearcats ahead in the seventh inning with a run-scoring single that played Matt Williams for a 4-3 advantage. Cortes made a diving catch to end the inning with the bases loaded to keep the Army deficit at one.
Army has runners on second and third in the seventh before a strikeout and flyout ended the inning. `
In the bottom of the eight, Army loaded the bases on three consecutive singles from Cortes, Mark McCants and Mescher. A strikeout and diving catch of a soft line drive ended the frame.
Army and Cincinnati will play the second of the three-game series Saturday at 4 p.m. Sunday's final game is set for 1 p.m. Knight Vision will provide a video and audio stream at www.goARMYsports.com. Fans in the Hudson Valley can listen to the games at WEOK (1390-AM) and WALL (1340-AM).
GAME NOTES: Army wore its all white uniforms ... To commemorate the first night game, Army wore special batting practice caps ... Two coaches, two cadet coaches, one manager, 24 players and head groundskeeper Billy German were presented with 2013 championship rings from Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Boo Corrigan ... Cincinnati attended last night's New York Yankees game and took a tour of West Point Friday as part of its trip ... Col. John Baskerville, Army's head Officer Representative, served as the team's Officer Representative ... Army has registered double-digit hits in nine games this season ... Army catcher Ben Smith threw out two runners trying to steal.
