Baseball Drops Series Opener at Air Force

Friday, February 28

Colorado Springs, Colo.

4:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM MT

Army West Point

1-6

Air Force

3-6

ARMY

Air Force

Baseball Drops Series Opener at Air Force

February 28, 2025 | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

USAFA, Colo. – Army West Point Baseball dropped a 9-8 matchup to the Air Force Falcons Friday at Erdle Field, in 11 innings.

An Air Force RBI single with a runner on second propelled the Falcons to the win in Game 1 of the three-game series.

Starting pitcher Justin Lehman provided six innings, recording a pair of strikeouts. Trey Ates went 1.2 frames before giving way to Andrew Berg, making his first relief appearance of the season.

Berg struck out two batters across 2.1 innings, but took the decision.

Air Force struck first in the opening inning with three unearned runs and tacked on another run in the second inning to go ahead 4-0.

Army got on the scoreboard in the top of the third, when Mark Abell drove in Thomas Schreck with a sacrifice fly. The Black Knights got within another run an inning later, on a Michael Delph RBI groundout.

The Black Knights exploded for six runs in the fifth inning, batting around and recording extra base hits on three consecutive at-bats in the frame.

In the fifth, a pair of walks to begin the inning were followed by a Chris Barr bunt single to load the bases. Addison Ainsworth then doubled the bases clear to give Army a 5-4 lead. Lehman doubled to right center field to score Ainsworth, and Michael Delph roped an RPI triple to left, before Paul Andrzejewski made it 8-4 on a sacrifice fly.

Air Force cut Army's lead to 8-6 in the sixth inning, before scoring a run in the seventh and in the eighth to tie the contest.

By the Numbers

11: Lehman retired 11 straight batters from the third through sixth innings.

3: Ainsworth recorded three RBIs Friday.

2: Barr drew a pair of walks.

.500: Army batted .500 with runners in scoring position.

Black Knight Notes

Army batted around in an inning for the first time in 2025, sending 10 batters to the plate in the fifth.

The Black Knights had more runs than hits for the second time in 2025.

Ainsworth extended his hitting streak to four games, and on-base streak to seven games.

Lehman's six-inning pitching start was his third in as many starts this season.

Army went to extra innings for the first time in 2025 and just the second time since the end of 2023. It also represented the first scheduled nine-inning game to go to extras since April 11, 2023 vs. Stony Brook. Friday's game was the longest played by a Black Knight team in terms of innings played since going 16 innings vs. Siena March 22, 2023. The Black Knights played more extra innings Friday than they did in all of 2024.

Next Up

The teams are back in action for Game 2 of the series, Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. MT.

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