Baseball Handles Hofstra in Home Opener

Wednesday, April 8

West Point, N.Y.

3:30 PM

Army West Point

15-14

Hofstra

10-17

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Hofstra	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	4	7	4
Army West Point	1	0	4	0	3	0	1	3	X	12	14	1

Baseball Handles Hofstra in Home Opener

April 08, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

April 8, 2015

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WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army baseball team played its 2015 home opener on Wednesday afternoon and cruised to a 12-4 victory over Hofstra at Doubleday Field. Junior right-hander Garrison Franklin held the Pride to one run in five innings to earn his first win of the season.

The win moved Army above .500 at 15-14, while Hofstra fell to 10-17 on the season.

Ryan Levenhagen and Jacob Page each recorded three hits, with Page driving in three and Levenhagen two runs. Alex Dickerson also plated three, while Jon Rosoff, Baggio Saldivar and Ben Smith each had multi-hit performances for Army. As a unit, the Black Knights pounded out 14 hits and each starting position player reached base safely in the triumph.

Army used five pitchers in the game and received scoreless performances from Stu Schley (2.0 innings, one hit allowed), Matt Ball (0.2 innings) and Justin French (0.1 inning). Johnny Griffith allowed three runs in the ninth in relief of French, who retired the only batter he faced.

"Every game is a big game," head coach Matt Reid said. "These midweek games lead you into the weekend where you need to be sharp in everything that you are doing. Hofstra is a good team, they had some good swings, but I thought our approach was good and we played hard today."

Rosoff started Army's first trip to the plate by going the other way with a base hit to left field off Hofstra starting pitcher Patrick Bryant (0-1). Saldivar followed with his first-career double to the gap in left-center field to put runners in scoring position with nobody out. Up next was Smith, who ripped a line drive sacrifice fly to right that Rosoff scored on with a head-first slide. Army led 1-0 after Bryant got a ground ball and Hofstra turned a double play to end the inning.

Franklin retired the side in order in the second for his sixth straight putout, prior to a 1-2-3 inning for Bryant in the last of the second. The Army righty sent down nine in a row before a four-pitch walk to Jake Fallon with two outs put him on base for the second time. Fallon stole second, but was caught stealing by Saldivar trying to take third base.

Army loaded the bases with one out in the third for Mark McCants, who was hit with a Bryant offering that pushed the advantage to 2-0. Page continued the inning a run-scoring single that dropped into shallow center field, before a groundout to shortstop off the bat of Dickerson added another run. There was a throwing error on Hofstra second baseman Brad Witkowski, which allowed another run to score as Army went up 5-0 after three frames.

Hofstra's first hit came with one gone in the fourth when Witkowski poked a single to right field. He swiped second, but a lineout to center and a fly ball down the right field line stranded him there.

Hofstra broke through in the fifth when leadoff man Eric Ferguson turned on a Franklin pitch and homered just inside the left field foul pole to put the Pride on the board. Franklin limited the damage and finished his outing by giving up one run on three hits in five innings of work. He earned his first win of the year with three strikeouts and one walk in his longest outing of the season.

"Franklin was big," Reid added. "We don't have a lot of depth on our pitching staff and Franklin did a great job coming out and giving us five innings. Then Schley, Ball and French came in and did a nice job. We have to do a better job finishing out the game, but we did a good job expanding our lead."

The Black Knights added to their lead with three runs in the home half of the fifth. Smith started the rally with a double, McCants was hit by a pitch for the third time in three trips to the plate, and Page and Dickerson followed with singles. The scoring ended with an infield RBI base knock by Levenhagen with two away and gave Army an 8-1 advantage.

Army added an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh on another RBI single by Levenhagen. It was the Army first baseman's second three-hit game of the season and first multiple-RBI game. The lead ballooned to 12-1 with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, before Hofstra scored three of its own in the top of the ninth to run the final tally to 12-4.

"I was seeing the ball really well today," Levenhagen said following the win. "I had a rough weekend last weekend so it was nice to come out today and get my confidence back with a bunt base hit and then later got a hit off a lefty."

Army resumes Patriot League play this weekend at Bucknell. First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader is slated for noon.

Game Notes: Ryan Levenhagen recorded his second three-hit game of 2015 ... Levenhagen drove in two runs for the first time this season ... Jacob Page had three hits for the third time this year and posted his 10th multi-hit game ... Page tallied his third three-RBI game of the season ... third baseman Jon Rosoff recorded his fifth multi-hit game of the year ... Ben Smith has reached base safely in 11 consecutive games ... Smith recorded his ninth multi-hit game of the year ... Mark McCants extended his hitting streak to seven games ... Alex Dickerson drove in three runs for the first time this season ... Dickerson made his first start of the year in right field ... shortstop Alex Jensen started his 188th consecutive game ... Army wore its white jerseys with white pants and white caps with gold brims.