Final Stats

WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University baseball team overcame an early 3-0 deficit, but ultimately fell to the Naval Academy, 6-5, on Tuesday afternoon at Shirley Povich Field. With the loss, GU dropped to 13-17 on the season, while the Midshipmen improved to 22-8-1.

Jake Kuzel (Ashburn, Va./Stone Ridge) led the Georgetown offense with a 3-for-5 effort and two RBI. Joseph Bialkowski (Raleigh, N.C./Needham B. Broughton) also had a pair of RBI while Dante Ricciardi (West Boylston, Mass./Worcester Academy) was on base three times with three walks and scored a pair of runs.

Nick Leonard (Washington, D.C./Maret) started on the mound and went four innings, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks, while striking out three. Jack Cushing (Flower Mound, Texas/Marcus) threw two innings of relief, giving up one run on two hits. He struck out the side in the sixth inning. Jimmy Swad (Washington, D.C./St. Albans) took the hard-luck loss, giving up an unearned run in an inning of work. Tim Davis (Vienna, Va./James Madison HS) and David Ellingson (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands College Park) each fired a perfect inning in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.

Navy opened the scoring with three runs on four hits and a walk in the top of the second inning.

The Hoyas answered right back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third, knotting the score, 3-3. Ricciardi led off with a walk and Austin Shirley (Strafford, Pa./Conestoga) followed with a hit-by-pitch. Both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Michael DeRenzi (Mendham, N.J./Seton Hall Prep). Kuzbel then singled to right, scoring Ricciardi and sending Shirley to third, and Bialkowski grounded a ball to the shortstop that was bobbled, allowing Shirley to cross the plate and Kuzbel to reach second safely. After Cristian Sanchez (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community) singled to load the bases, Jake Bernstein (Frederick, Md./Saint John's College HS) reached on an infield single that scored Kuzbel to tie the score.

The Mids retook the lead on a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth, taking a 4-3 lead. Beau Hall (Seaville, N.J./Ocean City) prevented an additional run when he threw out a runner at the plate trying to score on a fly out.

GU took its first lead in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs. Ricciardi again led off with a walk and advanced to third on a one-out single by DeRenzi. After DeRenzi stole second, Kuzbel delivered his second RBI single in as many innings, scoring Riccardi and pushing DeRenzi to third. Bialkowski followed with a sacrifice fly to left, allowing DeRenzi to cross the plate and give the Hoyas a 5-4 lead.

Navy tied it right back up, 5-5, with a run on a single and a double in the top of the fifth. A two-out error followed by two singles plated the eventual winning run for Navy in the top of the seventh inning.

Georgetown put runners on base in three of the final four innings, but was unable to push across the tying run.

The Hoyas will head back out on the road to open BIG EAST action, playing a three-game series at conference-rival St. John's in Queens, N.Y. The series will kick off on Friday, April 8 at 3 p.m. and will continue on Saturday at 1 p.m. before wrapping up on Sunday at noon. Friday's series opener will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network and Sunday's game can be seen on ESPN3.

To watch on Friday, download the FOX Sports GO app for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire tablets and phones and select Windows devices to view BIG EAST Digital Network games on-the-go. The FOX Sports GO platform can also be accessed at FOXSportsGO.com on desktops.

Notes
DeRenzi's single in the fourth inning extended his hitting streak to 15 games.