Franklin, French Pitch Baseball Past Navy

Sunday, April 26

West Point, N.Y.

4:00 PM

Army West Point

20-23, 6-14

Navy

32-17, 13-7

Navy

Army West Point

Franklin, French Pitch Baseball Past Navy

April 26, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

April 26, 2015

Box Score | Box Score (PDF)

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Garrison Franklin held Navy to two runs over seven innings and Justin French closed the 3-2 victory for the Army West Point baseball team in game two of Sunday's doubleheader at Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field. The win helped the Black Knights avoid a sweep after Navy won the first game of the day 3-0.

The win moved Army West Point to 20-23 overall and 6-14 in the Patriot League, while Navy fell to 13-7 in the conference and 32-17 on the year.

Franklin improved to 2-0 in 2015 after scattering four hits, fanning six and walking three Navy hitters.

His counterpart, Navy's Kyle Condry was solid over his 4.2 innings, but was hurt by two Navy errors that helped Army take the lead in the fifth. Condry was responsible for three runs (one earned), on five hits with no walks or strikeouts.

Adrian Chinnery's RBI double down the left field line put the Mids in front in their first trip to the dish. Brad Borosak, who walked and swiped second base, scored on the play to give Navy a 1-0 advantage.

Army West Point tied the game in the bottom of the second inning by manufacturing a run as a result of Ryan Levenhagen's leadoff double. Consecutive sacrifices, the second a deep fly ball to left field by rookie Brandon Lee made it 1-1 after two.

The score remained tied until the Cadets broke the deadlock with two unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth. An error by Logan Knowles at third base let Johnny Griffith reach safely and he was at third base with two outs three batters later. Ben Smith came to the plate and ripped a ground ball through the legs of Knowles to plate Griffith. Next, Mark McCants hit a bouncer through the hole on the right side, which ended Condry's day and brought Sam Sorenson out of the Navy pen. The first pitch he threw was smoked into the left field corner by Alex Jensen as Smith scored to increase the lead to 3-1. McCants attempted to score all the way from first, but he was gunned down at the plate to end the inning.

Navy wasted no time in getting one run back in the top of the sixth. Sean Trent started the inning with a two-base hit over the head of Jacob Page in center field. A productive ground out moved Trent to third and a sacrifice fly by Connor Deneen made it 3-2.

Franklin tossed a 1-2-3 seventh and started the eighth by walking leadoff man Robert Currie. At that point, Justin French came into the game and cleaned things up nicely with a groundout, pickoff and strikeout.

French remained in the game at the start of the ninth and faced Chinnery to start the inning. A ground ball off the end of the bat squirted away from Ryan Levenhagen at first base for an infield single, plus an error gave the Mids two baserunners with nobody out. A chopper to Rosoff at third let the rookie tag Chinnery for the first out. An error on a bouncing ball hit to second loaded the bases for pinch hitter Drew Hayes. French got him swinging on an outside pitch, then left them loaded for his first save as Travis Blue flew out to center for the final out.

"We live in the moment and try to win each game as it comes," head coach Matt Reid said following the victory. "We have a lot of work to do this week as a team. Wednesday is a big game for us against Marist in the battle for the Hudson River. We are really excited to play in front of the Hudson Valley against a great team. It is another opportunity for us to compete and that is what we need to continue to do."

Army West Point returns to the field on Wednesday evening when it plays Marist in the 10th Annual WRWD Hudson Valley Baseball Classic at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, N.Y. First pitch against the Red Foxes is slated for 6:39 p.m.

Game Notes: Army West Point wore its home white jerseys with black pinstripes, white pants and black caps ... Ben Smith recorded his team-leading 13th multi-hit game ... Ryan Levehagen also had two hits for his seventh multiple-hit game of the season.