March 23, 2004

Bethesda, Md. - The Navy baseball team dropped its tenth straight road contest and suffered its sixth consecutive defeat overall as it fell 3-1 to Georgetown Tuesday afternoon at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, Md. The Mids are now 5-16, while the Hoyas improve to 16-11.

A two-run home run by Andrew Cleary off Navy starting pitcher Robert Herrick (So., Valencia, Calif.) broke a 1-1 tie with no outs in the bottom of the sixth and proved to be the difference. The home run to left-center field was just the second home run allowed by Navy pitching this season, and was the fifth long ball hit by Cleary, who leads the Big East.

In the eighth, the Mids tried to rally. Dominic Lopez (Fr., Quincy, Mich.) led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a one-out single by Chris Ashinhurst (Sr., Stafford, Va.). Georgetown got out of the jam as reliever Thomas Braun got Dean Farmer (Sr., Knoxville, Tenn.) to hit into a 5-4-3 double play on his first pitch.

Georgetown pitcher Eduardo Pena came in at the start of the second and tossed 6-1/3 innings to get the win to move to 3-1. Pena struck out eight Mids after replacing Kevin Field. Field was making his first appearance of the season after missing the first 26 games due to injury. Thomas Braun was perfect in 1-2/3 innings of relief for his third save.

"Georgetown has a good club," said Navy head coach Steve Whitmyer. "We were fortunate that with four errors we were still in the game. I thought that Herrick gave us a tremendous start and kept us close enough that we had a chance to win.

"Perez was strong striking out eight, and Braun came in shut us down."

Herrick was solid in his first collegiate start. He went five innings without allowing an earned run until Cleary's home run. The long ball followed the first walk given up in the game by Herrick, who gave a free pass to Billy Quinn to lead off the season. The sophomore lefty scattered four hits and struck out two in five innings, which is tied for his longest performance of the season. Joe Koessler (So., Knoxville, Tenn.) relieved Herrick in the sixth and kept Navy in the game by shutting out the Hoyas for two innings.

The Mids tied the game at one with an unearned run in the top of fifth. With two outs, Ryan McGinn (So. Arvada, Colo.) picked up Navy's first hit of the game with a single to left-center field. McGinn moved to third on a single by Matt Lukevics (Jr., Tampa, Fla.) when left fielder Ron Cano ran by the ball in left and scored on a wild pitch by Pena.

The Hoyas got on the board in the bottom of the second when Andrew Cleary scored on a passed ball by Navy catcher Doug Silverman (Jr., Foster City, Calif.). Cleary reached base when he was hit by a pitch from Herrick, and moved to second on a single by Michael Lombardi. After moving to third on a sacrifice bunt by Cano, Cleary scored on a pitch off the glove of Silverman.

Navy plays host to Delaware at 2:30 on Wednesday at Max Bishop Stadium. The game is the final tune-up before the Mids open Patriot League play on Saturday at pre-season favorite Bucknell.