Game One Box Score (Army 12, Lafayette 7)

Game Two Box Score (Army 12, Lafayette 10)

EASTON, Pa. – J.P. Polchinski homered twice in the first game and once in the second game and Clint Moore added three-run blasts in both contests as Army clinched a share of its second straight regular season Patriot League championship by sweeping a doubleheader from Lafayette, Sunday afternoon at Kamine Stadium.

Army won the first game by the score of 12-7, then rallied for two runs with two outs in the top of the ninth inning of the second game to secure a 12-10 victory. By winning three of four games against Lafayette over the weekend, the Black Knights tied Bucknell atop the final regular-season standings with a 13-7 league mark. Army captured at least a share of its fourth regular season Patriot League title in six years and clinched its fifth Patriot League Tournament berth during that same span.

Moore, whose three-run homer in the fourth inning of the seven-inning opener turned a 6-4 deficit into a 7-6 lead, went 4-for-7 with five runs scored and six runs batted in during the doubleheader. He tripled twice and smacked a three-run home run in the eighth inning of the second game that provided the Black Knights with what seemed to be a comfortable 10-5 lead at the time before Lafayette came storming back.

Polchinski, who ripped three home runs during the four-game weekend series, went 4-for-8 with four runs scored and four runs batted in during Sunday’s twinbill. His sharp single to left with two outs and no one on base ignited Army’s game-winning rally in the top of the ninth inning of the second game after the Leopards had tied the score at 10-10 with five runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Army (24-17 overall, 13-7 Patriot) will serve as the No. 2 seed in next month’s Patriot League Tournament and will host a best-of-three semifinal series against third-seeded Holy Cross on May 9-10 at West Point’s Doubleday Field. Bucknell, which won a head-to-head tiebreaker against Army (defeating the Black Knights three times in four games during the regular season), earned the top seed in the Patriot’s postseason tourney and will host No. 4 seed Lafayette in the other best-of-three semifinal series. The winners will meet in the best-of-three Patriot League Championship Series on May 16-17 at the home of the highest remaining seed.

Polchinski’s first home run of the day, a two-run shot in the second inning of the opener, highlighted a four-run uprising for the Black Knights as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Lafayette starter Jeremy Atkins. But Lafayette responded with five runs on six hits opposite Army starter Ben Koenigsfeld. A two-run single by Daniel Bierce, an RBI double by Matt Hall and run-scoring singles by A.J. Miller and Alex Bechta keyed the frame. Hall’s solo home run in the third stretched Lafayette’s lead to 6-4.

Moore’s three-run homer in the fourth, a searing liner well over the fence in left-center field, followed a walk to J.T. Watkins and a single by Zach Price and moved Army in front for good at 7-6. An opposite-field solo smash by Polchinski with one out in the fifth increased the Black Knights’ lead to 8-6. A three-run homer to left by Joey Henshaw in the sixth and an RBI single by Price in the seventh moved the Army lead to 11-6.

After allowing Hall’s solo homer in the third, Koenigsfeld (6-3) retired nine of the next 10 batters he faced entering the seventh inning. He permitted a single run in the seventh, but avoided further damage in running his Patriot League record to a perfect 5-0 on the season. Koenigsfeld allowed seven runs on eight hits, striking out four and walking four as he registered his fourth complete game.

Price, who finished 6-for-8 with five runs scored and two runs batted in during the twinbill, went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and two runs batted in to spark Army’s offense in the first game. Polchinski added two hits, two runs scored and three RBI.

The Black Knights battled back from an early 4-1 deficit and still trailed 5-3 entering the seventh inning of the nightcap. But Army pushed across four runs on three hits in the inning, chasing starter Ryan Hanna after Price slapped a leadoff single and Andy Ernesto ripped a line-drive double down the right-field line. Ethan Perro relieved Hanna and promptly hit Moore with the first pitch he threw before surrendering a bases-clearing double to the gap in left-center field by Henshaw. Koenigsfeld’s sacrifice fly delivered Henshaw with Army’s fourth run of the inning, providing the Black Knights with a 7-5 lead.

It appeared Army had added three insurance runs in the eighth when Watkins and Price laced consecutive one-out singles and Moore lofted a high fly over the fence in right field after falling behind in the count 0-2. Lafayette right fielder Matt Hall leaped above the fence and narrowly missed robbing Moore of his second three-run home run of the day, but Hall came away empty and Army pushed its lead to 10-5.

Lafayette (20-23 overall, 9-11 Patriot) would not fold, though, scoring five times on six hits in the bottom of the frame to level the score at 10-10. A three-run home run by Butler and a clutch, two-out, two-run single by Brian Davila accounted for the runs as the Leopards rallied against Black Knight reliever Tyler Anderegg.

But Army came roaring back with the game-winning runs in the top of the ninth. Polchinski’s two-out single to left  against Leopard reliever Ian Dickson kick-started the attack. Kyle Fleming drew a walk and Watkins followed with a two-run double off the right-field fence that plated Polchinski and Fleming with what proved to be the game-winning runs.

Lafayette mounted a final threat against Army closer Kevin McKague in the bottom of the ninth as Butler was hit by a pitch and Justin Shepherd walked to open the stanza. McKague stiffened from there, inducing Hall to rap into a 4-6-3 double-play, then striking out Matt Fenster on three pitches to notch his fourth save of the season.

Henshaw, who turned in a solid starting effort on the mound for the Black Knights, went 3-for-5 with one run scored and four runs batted in. He also yielded five runs (four earned) on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts over 5.1 innings of work. Moore finished the second game 3-for-4 with two triples, one home run, three runs scored and three runs batted in, while Watkins went 3-for-5 with one run scored and three runs batted in.

After recording just one win in its first six Patriot League contests this spring, Army ended conference play with 12 victories in its final 14 league games to earn its fourth regular season Patriot League crown since 2004. The Black Knights have won 14 of their last 18 games overall.

Army returns to non-league action on Wednesday when the Black Knights square off against Marist at the fourth annual WPDH Hudson Valley Baseball Classic at Dutchess Stadium. First pitch is set for 7:09 p.m. The game will be televised by Time Warner Cable 6 and Cablevision in the Hudson Valley. The game call can be heard along the Army Sports Network as well.

Black Knights Blog: Joey Henshaw batted safely in all 20 Patriot League contests ... Zach Price extended his hitting streak to 16 games on Sunday ... Price batted .579 (11-19) during the weekend series against Lafayette, adding eight runs scored and three RBI out of the Black Knights’ leadoff spot ... he posted a .632 slugging percentage and a .619 on-base percentage ... Clint Moore batted .571 with two triples, two home runs, eight runs scored and eight runs batted in during the four-game set versus Lafayette ... he also handled 24 defensive chances flawlessly and turned in a host of highlight-reel defensive gems throughout the weekend ... Army posted a .359 team batting average in Patriot League play, the highest figure for the Black Knights since joining the conference in 1993 ... Army blasted 12 home runs during its four-game series against Lafayette ... it marks the most home runs recorded by the Black Knights during a four-game Patriot League series ... Army slammed four homers in the first game on Sunday and two more in the second ... with six longballs on Sunday, the Black Knights equaled the single season school record for home runs (40), first established a year ago ... despite losing three of four games to Army this weekend, Lafayette garnered the final spot in next month’s Patriot League Tournament ... the Leopards earned the fourth seed will travel to face No. 1 seed Bucknell ... Lafayette took three of four games from the Bison in Lewisburg earlier this month ... Navy (8-12) and Lehigh (4-14) failed to qualify for the tournament ... Army and Holy Cross split their four game regular season Patriot League series at West Point in early April ... the Crusaders swept a doubleheader from the Black Knights on April 4, before Army returned the favor the following day ... those games were played in cold, blustery weather at Doubleday Field ... temperatures soared into the low-90s on Saturday in Easton ... Holy Cross finished Patriot League play at 11-7 ... if the Crusaders were to sweep their makeup twinbill against Lehigh (originally rescheduled for Monday, April 27), Holy Cross would have forged a three-way tie for the regular-season Patriot League title ... but even in that scenario, the Crusaders would finish with the No. 3 seed, losing out on tie-breakers to both Bucknell and Army ... the Black Knights’ non-league defeat of Quinnipiac carried a great deal of importance in determining final seeding for the Patriot League tourney ... according to Patriot League baseball rules, the fourth tie-breaker between conference teams is the record of the two teams against common non-league opponents ... had Holy Cross, Army and Bucknell finished tied, the Bison would prevail based on their 6-2 combined record against Army and Holy Cross ... the Black Knights and Crusaders would exhaust two other tie-breaker scenarios before examining non-conference common opponents ... Quinnipiac stands as the only common non-league opponent for the schools ... while Army posted a 16-3 defeat of the Bobcats in March, Holy Cross and Quinnipiac split a pair of decisions.