Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
3-3
Longwood
4-6
Longwood Takes Rubber Game From Baseball
March 01, 2015 | Baseball
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. - Following a split of Saturday's doubleheader, the Army baseball team fell behind Longwood early in the series finale and lost by a 6-2 final on Sunday afternoon at Big Rock Stadium. Army's offense was quieted by the duo of Michael Catlin and Ryan Jones, who combined to hold the Black Knights to three hits.
Longwood (4-6) jumped on Army (3-3) starter Daniel Gibbons early with four runs in the home half of the first inning and added another run in the second.
The Lancers opened the scoring when Kyri Washington doubled home Travis Biddix, who reached base with a one-out single. Washington was on third with two away before a wild pitch allowed him to cross the plate safely. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases for Michael Osinski, who dropped a two-run single into the gap in right center to increase the lead to 4-0.
Gibbons got the first two outs of the second before issuing free passes to Washington and Brandon Delk, which brought freshman Jeremy Mortensen into the game from the bullpen. Connar Bastaich greeted him with an RBI single down the line in right to increase the Longwood lead to 5-0.
The lead remained at 5-0 until Army got its first base hit when Jacob Page led off the fifth inning with a double off of Catlin. Two batters later, Ryan Levenhagen's sacrifice fly scored him from third and Army was on the board.
Trailing 5-1 after Mortensen threw a scoreless fifth to complete his afternoon, Army pushed another run across with doubles by Jon Rosoff and Mark McCants. The second run was charged to Catlin, who was lifted for Jones with one out and Rosoff on second. He pitched 5.1 innings, struck out four and walked one to improve to 2-0 on the year.
Mortensen threw 3.1 innings in relief of Gibbons (0-1) and allowed one run on four hits. He punched out two and walked two others before classmate Matt Ball entered the game with a man on in the bottom of the sixth. The inherited runner scored on Bastaich's second RBI of the game, making it a 6-2 game.
Jones fanned three and did not surrender a hit after McCants' RBI double and earned the save in 3.2 shutout innings on the mound.
For Army, Ball scattered five hits and struck out three in 2.2 innings and Patrick Gardner got the final out of the eighth inning to complete Army's pitching effort.
Army is scheduled to return to the diamond on March 6 against Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: CATLIN, M. (2-0)
L: Gibbons, Daniel (0-1)
S: JONES, R. (1)
Batting:
2B: Rosoff, Jon 1 ; McCants, Mark 1 ; Page, Jacob 1
RBI: McCants, Mark 1 ; Levenhagen, Ryan 1
SF: Levenhagen, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rosoff, Jon 1 ; Page, Jacob 1
HBP: Smith, Ben 1
Batting:
2B: WASHINGTON 1
RBI: WASHINGTON 1 ; BASTAICH, C. 2 ; OSINSKI, M. 2
SH: BIDDIX, T. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: KONVICKA, C. 1 ; BIDDIX, T. 1 ; WASHINGTON 2 ; BASTAICH, C. 1 ; LEWIS, A. 1
SB: WASHINGTON 1
CS: DELK, B. 1
HBP: McCAFFERTY 1 ; ROTH, C.J. 1
