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                         May 3, 2002

Baseball runs win streak to nine

By Bob Beretta
Asst. Athletic Dir., Athletic Media Relations

Don’t look now but the Army baseball team remains in the hunt for one of the Patriot League’s three postseason tournament berths.

Freshman Justin Kashner fired a four-hitter in the opener and sophomore Wes Bumgardner scattered three hits in the nightcap as the Black Knights ran their winning streak to nine games with a pair of shutout victories over Holy Cross, Monday afternoon at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass. Army won by the scores of 2-0 and 6-0, registering three straight shutouts for the first time in the 113-year history of intercollegiate baseball at the U.S. Military Academy. In fact, Black Knight hurlers combined to surrender just one run across 28 innings during the series. Kashner and Bumgardner combined for seven strikeouts and no walks during Monday’s action.

Left for dead after opening their league schedule at 3-9, the Black Knights have caught fire down the stretch, posting consecutive four-game Patriot League series sweeps for the first time since joining the conference in 1993. Army closed out its Patriot slate with eight consecutive victories, its longest league winning streak in eight years. The Black Knights’ nine-game winning streak overall marks their longest victory string since 1986, when Army reeled off 13 consecutive triumphs.

Coupled with Navy’s doubleheader sweep of third-place Lehigh, Army’s postseason hopes were buoyed by Monday’s results. While the Black Knights completed their Patriot League slate at 11-9, Lehigh stands at 9-7 entering its season-ending four-game series against conference leader Lafayette next weekend. The Mountain Hawks will enter the series holding a magic number of two to eliminate Army. Lehigh carried that same magic number into Monday’s action, but was unable to whittle it further by virtue of Army’s doubleheader sweep of Holy Cross and Navy’s sweep of the Mountain Hawks.

Should Lehigh earn a series split with its archrival next weekend, the Mountain Hawks would claim the third and final spot in the league’s postseason tournament. Lafayette and Navy have already secured spots in the field. Three victories by Lafayette would assure the Leopards of their first-ever Patriot League regular-season championship and the right to host the conference tournament.

In the opener Monday, Army broke up a scoreless pitchers’ duel between Kashner and Crusader left-hander John Dibble (0-6) by bunching together three of its six hits in the fourth inning. Senior Kyle Kalkwarf smacked a leadoff single to left field and classmate Brandon Boyce followed with a single to center. Both runners moved into scoring position on freshman Schuyler Williamson’s sacrifice bunt, setting the stage for freshman Nate Stone’s two-run triple to the gap in deep left-center field.

Kashner took over from there, retiring 11 of last 13 batters he faced. The freshman righty permitted just two Crusader baserunners into scoring position all day and did not allow a single runner past first base after the third frame. He struck out two and did not walk a batter in raising his overall record to 4-2 on the season.

Bumgardner (2-4) was just as impressive in the second game, facing just four batters over the minimum. He allowed only one runner past first base -- on Chris Doneski’s one-out double in the fifth inning. That snapped a string of 10 in a row retired by Bumgardner. He struck out five and did not walk a batter in registering his second consecutive complete-game victory.

"This was a great weekend for our program," Army head coach Joe Sottolano said. "We received outstanding pitching and defense in all four games and continued to receive clutch hitting. We performed well in pressure situations and played about as well as we possibly could have played.

"I can’t say enough about our pitching and defense the last few weeks," he added. "Everyone is contributing to this streak and that is great to see."

Army (18-20 overall, 11-9 Patriot) has recorded shutouts in four of its last five games for the first time in school history and has allowed just one run in its last 37 innings of action, posting a remarkable 0.24 team earned run average over that span. In all, five freshmen and one sophomore have logged innings on the mound during Army’s shutout string. While a trio of freshmen pitchers -- Wade Greenlee, Scott Bramble and Josh Birenbaum -- combined to blank St. Francis 6-0 in non-league action April 24, freshman Dan Cappello shut out Holy Cross in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

For the second straight week, Army players walked off with two of the Patriot League’s three weekly honors as Bumgardner and Kashner claimed top pitcher and rookie honors, respectively, Tuesday.