Holy Cross Takes Pitchers' Duel From Baseball

Sunday, April 19

West Point, N.Y.

1:00 PM

Army West Point

18-19, 5-10

Holy Cross

19-20, 10-5

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Holy Cross	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	4	0
Army West Point	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1

Holy Cross Takes Pitchers' Duel From Baseball

April 19, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

April 19, 2015

Box Score | Box Score (PDF)

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Holy Cross came out on the positive end of a pitcher's duel between Justin Finan and Army West Point's Jeremy Mortensen as the Crusaders blanked the Black Knights 3-0 in game one of Sunday's twinbill at Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field.

The loss pushed Army West Point to 5-10 in the Patriot League and 18-19 overall, while Holy Cross improved to 10-5 and 19-20 in 2015.

Finan surrendered three hits, in a complete-game effort, to pick up his third win of the year. The right-hander walked two and struck out the final two Army West Point hitters to finish off the shutout.

Mortensen was terrific for the Black Knights as well, yielding four base hits in the hard-luck loss. The Army West Point southpaw fell to 2-4 on the year and was ultimately responsible for all three Holy Cross runs. He struck out two, walked one and hit two men in 6.1 innings. Only one of the three runs was earned.

Scoreless through the first five innings, Holy Cross' Alex Voitik began the top of the sixth inning with a clean base hit to centerfield. Two batters later, the Crusaders had runners on first and second with one away for Evan Ocello, who drew a four-pitch free pass to load the bases. Facing Jack St. Clair, Mortensen jammed him with a humpback liner to second base, where Johnny Griffith couldn't handle it. He fired to second for the first out and the Black Knights ended the inning when Jensen tossed to third to complete the double play, but not before Voitik scored to put Holy Cross in front 1-0.

Army threatened with consecutive base hits in the bottom of the sixth inning as Griffith and Jon Rosoff were on the corners with nobody out. A groundout to the pitcher, followed by a failed bunt attempt quickly gave Holy Cross two outs. Finan issued an intentional walk to Mark McCants to load the bases, but Jensen grounded out to leave the bases loaded.

Holy Cross added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning to provide some breathing room for Finan. The Crusaders loaded the bases with one out when Julian Larimer was called in from the bullpen to replace Mortensen. Larimer got the ground ball he needed, but a throwing error allowed two runs to score as the lead increased to 3-0.

Finan completed the victory with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh inning to move to 3-2 on the season.

Game two of Army West Point and Holy Cross' doubleheader is underway.

Game Notes: Army West Point its home white jerseys with black pinstripes, white pants and black caps ... Jeremy Mortensen's 6.1 innings marked the longest outing of his career ... Alex Dickerson singled for the Black Knights in the third inning.