The Bison took on Navy in a four-game series in Annapolis, Md., losing the first three but coming back victorious in the last to earn their first Patriot League win of the season.
In game one of the series, the Orange and Blue fell 4-3 to the Midshipmen in 10 innings. The Bison maintained a 3-1 lead until the ninth inning when the Midshipmen tied the game and then walked off in extra innings.
Tyler O’Neill ʼ25 had another successful game on the mound, going eight innings with only one earned run and five strikeouts. He pitched a shut-out until an eighth-inning rally that put the Navy on the board. Jonathan Adelmann ʼ27 took over in the ninth and struck out two straight batters, but the Midshipmen tied the game from a single, a walk and two RBI singles. A walk-off hit by the Midshipmen ended the game in the 10th inning.
Despite the loss, the Bison outhit Navy 9-8, eight of nine Bison starters having a hit. Luke Nascimento ʼ27 got the Bison on the board with an RBI in the sixth inning. Walking twice, he reached base safely in all of his plate appearances. Tyler Dunn ʼ25 was 1-for-3 with two walks, extending his on-base streak for 12 games. John Calabrese ʼ28 had a hit and an RBI bases-loaded walk that brought the game to 2-0 in the eighth. Calabrese has a five-game hitting streak and has reached base in all eight games he’s played in since being added to the lineup. Michael Trommer ʼ26 is also on a five-game RBI streak and brought in the third run of the game for the Bison. After leading off the inning with a single, he scored on Nascimento’s double. Trommer also added an insurance run in the ninth. The Bison left 11 runners on base.
On Saturday, the Bison fell to Navy in both games of the doubleheader. The Midshipmen took early leads in both games, but the Bison were unable to make successful comebacks.
In game two of the series, Dunn, Billy Kender ʼ25 and Garrison Bullock ʼ26 all had two hits, accounting for six of the Bison’s seven hits in the game. Dunn scored Billy Fluharty ʼ27 off an RBI triple, getting the Bison on the board. Calabrese sparked a three-run rally, followed by RBIs from Dunn, Kender and Trommer. The Bison ultimately fell 6-4 to the Midshipmen in seven innings.
Again, the Bison fell just short of a victory with a 13-12 loss in game three. Navy took an alarming 13-2 lead after two innings. After five innings, the Bison brought the score to 13-12 but went scoreless in the last two, leading to their defeat. Despite the two losses, Trommer and Ryan Facinelli ʼ26 had career days. Trommer went 5-for-8 on the day with two RBIs and a walk, racking up four hits in game three for the second time in his career, and he reached base in all five plate appearances. Dunn had two hits in each game and further extended his on-base streak to 14 games. Chris Morabito ʼ27 picked up three RBIs off of a three-run home run, his first of the season. Calabrese reached base in all four of his plate appearances and is batting .381 in nine games.
The Bison chipped away at the lead in the first few innings with two runs in the second, three runs in the third, five runs in the fourth and two runs in the fifth. The fifth inning rally included Facinelli’s third hit of the game, which set up an RBI single for Calabrese. Dunn contributed a double, and Trommer and Facinelli hit RBI singles to bring the score to 13-12. Trommer and Facinelli both hit again in the seventh, adding their fourth and fifth hits of the game, respectively. The Bison outhit the Midshipmen 17-13 but stranded 12 runners on base, leaving the bases loaded in three separate innings.
Nick Mulvey ʼ25 and Hadley Maxwell ʼ26 shut down the Midshipmen after their explosive first few innings’ pitching. Although Mulvey allowed three runs to come home after being thrown into a suboptimal situation in the second, he bounced back with scoreless innings in the third and fourth. Maxwell took over with two runners on base, but he worked out of the inning with two strikeouts and a ground out. He fanned two more batters in the sixth inning. Maxwell has brought his ERA down to 1.42 in 12.2 innings and accumulated 16 strikeouts.
In game four, the Bison bounced back strong, winning the final game of the series 8-1. The Orange and Blue used a big seven-run inning to lead them to their first Patriot League victory of the season. Dunn and Calabrese combined for four hits and five RBIs. The Bison held a 1-0 lead until raking in seven runs in the seventh inning.
Dunn was 2-for-3 with three RBIs in the finale and 7-for-14 with five RBIs throughout the four-game series. He extended his hitting streak to six games and his on-base streak to 15 games. In the past six games, he batted .545, five of which were multi-hit games. Calabrese started the seventh-inning rally with a double. Brady Karp ʼ25 drew a walk and Fluharty laid down a perfect bunt to load the bases after Calabrese’s lead-off double. Dunn knocked a two-run single to bring the score to 3-0. Kender, Trommer, Facinelli and Nascimento kept up the offensive momentum and brought in more runs. Calabrese made a second appearance at the plate in the inning and hit a two-run single to make the score 7-0. Nascimento scored off a wild pitch to make the game 8-0.
Brady Swenson ʼ25 earned his first win of the season after 2.2 scoreless innings in relief of Mikey Myro ʼ26, who struck out the first batter he faced and allowed a hit and a walk in his 1.1-inning debut. Swenson took over in the second inning with a runner on second base and worked a ground ball and fly ball to strand the runner. Over the next two innings, he fanned three batters and only allowed a walk. Sam Janik ʼ28 tossed a scoreless inning in the fifth, allowing a one-out double but stranded the runner with two groundouts. In his last three appearances, he has allowed only one earned run over six innings. Maxwell tossed two scoreless innings but ran into some trouble, but Adelmann took over and forced two flyouts, only allowing one Navy run to score.
Up next, the Bison will travel to Massachusetts to take on Holy Cross Friday, March 28.
