Army Baseball Takes Two Games From Holy Cross

WEST POINT – The Army West Point baseball team took both ends of the doubleheader vs. Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon at Doubleday Field on the West Point campus.

The Black Knights (6-11, 3-3 Patriot League) won game one of the series by a score of 7-3 and then took game two in walk-off fashion, 6-5 in 10 innings to complete the doubleheader sweep.

In game one, the Crusaders (0-7, 0-5) got on the board first, tagging starting pitcher Anthony LoRicco with a run, but the Black Knight offense wasted no time, scoring at least one run in each of the first four frames to pull out to a 7-1 lead.

The Crusaders added two runs in the sixth inning, but the Black Knights held onto the 7-3 lead. Reliever Tanner Gresham took the win to improve to 1-0 on the year, while Holy Cross starter Luke Dawson took the loss to fall to 0-2.

Leadoff man Carter Macias led the way at the plate in the game one, going 2-for-2 with two runs scored, three RBI and two walks. He drove in two runs on a single to left center in the second inning and added his first home run since 2019, a solo shot, in the fourth inning.

Nick Manesis also had a multi-hit day, going 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored. He drove home the game-tying run in the first inning.

The hero of game two was third baseman Anthony Giachin, who connected on a two-run moon shot in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving the Black Knights the 6-5 win.

Holy Cross jumped out to a three-run lead, putting up three runs in the second inning on back-to-back doubles off starter Robbie Buecker. Buecker settled in on the bump, however, going 5.2 innings, allowing just three runs on three hits with two walks, two strikeouts and three hit batsman in the no-decision.

The Crusaders added a fourth run in the seventh inning on an RBI single to put the Black Knights in a 4-0 hole.

However, the Black Knights started chipping away at it. In the seventh inning, the Black Knights got on the board with a homer to left for Nick Manesis. Down by three, the Black Knights chipped away further, as Sam Ruta tripled home another run in the seventh and Hunter Meade delivered the second solo shot of the inning to pull within one, 4-3.

Then in the eighth inning, Jeremiah Adams delivered his first long ball of the year, a laser over the left field wall to tie the game at, 4-4.

With all the momentum going their way, the Black Knights seemed to lose some in the top of the 10th inning as Army reliever Sean Dennehy hit Blum with the bases full of Crusaders to bring home the potential go-ahead run, 5-4. Dennehy was able to limit the damage, however, and we headed to the bottom half of the inning.

With the count 0-1, a runner at first and one out, Giachin connected on a moonshot to deep right field to plate two runs, the game-tying and the go-head to walk the Crusaders off, 6-5.
Dennehy took the win (1-0), while the Crusaders’ Liam Dvorak took the loss (0-2).