Air Force Takes Series Finale From Baseball

Sunday, May 3

West Point, N.Y.

1:00 PM

Army West Point

21-26

Air Force

21-24

Air Force

Army West Point

Air Force Takes Series Finale From Baseball

May 03, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Air Force rode starting pitcher Trent Monaghan to a series victory as the lefty pitched seven strong innings on Sunday afternoon at Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field. The 4-2 win for the Falcons gave them back-to-back wins after Army West Point took game one on Friday evening.

Monaghan gave up two unearned runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and three walks to improve to 5-4 on the season. Air Force moved to 21-24 in 2015.

"Air Force has some great pitching," head coach Matt Reid said. "I thought we competed pretty well and they have really good team."

Army West Point starter Garrison Franklin tossed two scoreless innings to start the game before running into trouble in the third. Tyler Zabojnik started the rally with a single, then Travis Wilke was hit by a pitch to put the first two runners on base. A failed bunt attempt led to Zabojnik being caught off of second base as catcher Ben Smith threw down to third base for the first out. Adam Groesbeck, who remained at the plate, smashed his second hit of the game, a double off the wall in left. Wilke scored from first on the play and then Spencer Draws made it 2-0 with a run scoring single to center. Franklin limited the damage there with a pickoff and a popup to end the third.

The Army West Point offense struggled to get things going against the lefty Monaghan through the first three innings, with its lone hit coming on Brock Davidson's two-out second-inning single.

Davidson moved to the mound in the top of the fourth inning as the book closed on Franklin. The Black Knights' right-hander fell to 2-1 and allowed two earned runs on five hits with one strikeout in three innings on the bump.

An infield single and a hit batsman by the southpaw Davidson gave Air Force a chance to add to its lead with two on and one down. Russell Williams drew a full-count walk to load the bases for Zabojnik, but his ground ball glanced off Davidson and the defense behind him turned a 1-4-6-3 inning-ending double play.

Army West Point had its first baserunner reach second base in the form of Ben Smith, who opened the bottom of the fourth with a walk. Jacob Page smacked a single through the hole between third and shortstop to put runners on the corners with one away, but Ryan Levenhagen grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and Monaghan put up another zero.

Monaghan continued to cruise in the fifth as he struck out the side and kept the visitors in front 2-0. Davidson equaled Monagahn in the bottom half with a 1-2-3 inning of his own to retire five straight Air Force hitters. Davidson's afternoon was done after he twirled three scoreless innings and allowed two base hits, fanned two and walked one.

After Monaghan recorded his eighth strikeout to end the sixth, Williams led off the top of the seventh with a leadoff double to left for the Falcons. French got the next two outs, but Groesbeck dropped an RBI single into shallow left field and increased the lead to 3-0. Up next, Draws doubled to the wall in right and the lead stretched to 4-0.

Army West Point quickly got the two runs back in the bottom half of the seventh when they capitalized on an Air Force error. Jake Clark's single to center with the bases loaded gave the Black Knights their first run, then Jon Rosoff's RBI groundout pulled the home side back within two runs at 4-2.

Following a 1-2-3 inning by senior Julian Larimer out of the Army West Point bullpen, Air Force dipped into its pen as well for Ben Yokley. The hard-throwing senior right hander walked Mark McCants but stranded him at first to maintain the two-run lead for Air Force.

Larimer ended his day with four strikeouts after a perfect top of the ninth inning and Yokley collected his fourth save when he closed out the game with a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.

The Black Knights finished the 2015 campaign with a 21-26 mark.

"I am fired up for next year," Reid added. "Next year starts right now and that is what I told the team. We have good players coming in who can do a lot of good things and I am looking forward to developing a new team for next year."

Game Notes: Army West Point wore its home white jerseys with white pants and white caps with gold brims ... Ben Smith reached base three times with two walks and a base hit ... Brock Davidson recorded his first multi-hit game of 2015 ... Davidson extended his scoreless innings streak to eight for the season.