March 18, 2004

San Diego, Calif. - Five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning by San Diego broke open a one-run game as the Navy baseball team fell 8-1 to the Toreros. The loss was the fifth straight overall and ninth consecutive defeat on the road for Navy, which is 5-15 this season. USD is now 11-12.

John Hansen began the decisive sixth frame by getting hit by a pitch and stealing second. After Craig Candeto (Sr., Orange City, Fla.) ran down a fly ball in center for the first out, Randy Curtis singled off starter Andy Froistad (Sr., St. Paul, Minn.) to drive in Hansen. Curtis tallied on a single by Trevor Pike off reliever Burgess Nichols (Fr., Boston, Mass.), while Joey Prast scored on a fielder's choice. The final two runs crossed the plate after a single by Steve Singleton. Jose Ortega scored on the hit, while Tom Caple plated on a throwing error by Trevor Thompson (Jr., Kent, Wash.).

"I thought we did a good job of competing for the first five innings and the game was in the balance until that point," said Navy head coach Steve Whitmyer. "They had one big inning and that really did us in."

The hosts added a final run in the eighth.

The Toreros got on the board in the bottom of the second with a pair of runs on three straight singles off Froistad. Hansen and Jordan Abruzzo led off the inning with base hits. After Abruzzo stole second, Curtis roped a single to drive in Hansen and Abruzzo. Curtis finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

The Mids got one of the runs back in the top of the fifth when they took advantage of a tiring USD starter Pat Lucy, who struck out six in 4-1/3 innings. Lucy walked Thompson to begin the inning, and, after striking out a pair of Navy batters, loaded the bases by hitting B.J. Bickel (Fr., Benson, N.C.) and gave a free pass to Chris Ashinhurst (Sr., Stafford, Va.) with a base on balls. Lucy left the game after tossing three straight balls to Candeto. Candeto's walk was completed when reliever Brian Jones threw a ball with his first pitch. The base on balls allowed Thompson to cross the plate. Jones kept Navy from adding another run by striking out D.J. Faldowski (So., Washington, Pa.).

In the sixth, the Mids had the opportunity to knot the game at two as Dean Farmer (Sr., Knoxville, Tenn.) reached on an error to leadoff the inning and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan McGinn (So., Arvada, Colo.). Farmer was thrown out trying to steal third by Pike. Thompson followed with a single that would have scored Farmer and went to second on a throwing error by Freddy Sandoval.

Four USD pitchers combined on the three-hitter. Jones earned the win to improve to 1-1 after giving up one hit in an inning of work and working out of the fifth inning jam.

"We didn't hit the ball today which is something that has plagued us throughout the first half of the season," said Whitmyer. "We are going to half to improve in that area if we want to have a chance to get better as a team."

Froistad allowed five hits in 5-1/3 innings, while striking out two. Nichols gave up four runs -- three earned -- on seven hits in two innings.

Navy travels to Georgetown on Tuesday for a 3 p.m. game. The Mids return home for contest on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. against Delaware State.