Army Drops Sunday Finale; Finishes Weekend 2-1

CHARLESTON, S.C. – In an ultimately successful weekend for Army West Point baseball, the Black Knights dropped Sunday’s game to The Citadel 14-8 to finish the three-game week 2-1.

Army (2-4) finishes the three-game set with wins over SEC foe South Carolina and academy rival Air Force.

The Black Knights did not go down in the ninth without swinging, getting each of their first five men abord in the inning and quickly cutting the margin nearly in half. Max McGlone and John McKillop each recorded pinch-hit RBIs in the ninth.

Traveling to the coast after two games at South Carolina in Columbia, Army gave up three runs in the first inning at Joseph P. Riley Park Jr. park in Charleston and was unable to ultimately erase that early deficit.

The Black Knights did respond to the Bulldogs’ early three-run homer with a Josiah Overbeek RBI single in the top of the second, but another three Citadel runs in the home half of the inning put Army in an even deeper, 6-1 hole.

William Parker closed that gap to 6-3 on one swing in the third, a two-run home run with two outs to bring Army within arms’ length.

The sides exchanged runs over the next inning and a half, with the Bulldogs extending their lead to 8-4 after the fourth inning despite a Thomas Schreck two-out RBI single in the top half of the inning. The Citadel tacked on another run in the seventh with a squeeze bunt after the sides combined for a scoreless fifth and sixth, before following with five in the eighth.

Robbie Penswick made his second start of the season and took a two-inning decision.

William Leahy made his career debut in the third inning, with the southpaw collecting a strikeout over three innings pitched while allowing one earned run.

Mark Abell followed in relief and provided an additional pair of innings before Jakob Vanderhave, Joe Vaccarella and Sean Newton combined to toss the eighth.