May 5, 2008

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - Navy baseball southpaw Yale Eckert (So./La Selva Beach, Calif.) tossed a complete-game shutout on Sunday, and for his efforts, has been recognized as the Patriot League Pitcher of the Week, it was announced by the league office on Monday afternoon.

Eckert is the third Navy pitcher to earn Patriot League Pitcher-of-the-Week kudos this season and the second in as many weeks. Right-hander Mark McCoy (Sr./Parkland, Fla.) was distinguished for his performance against Princeton on March 24 and fellow right-hander Oliver Drake's (So./Gardner, Mass.) nine-inning shutout against Holy Cross merited league honors last week.

In Navy's 2-0 victory over New York Tech on Sunday, Eckert needed just 77 pitches to go the distance in a seven-inning ballgame. He allowed only one walk and struck out four in facing just four batters over the minimum. The Navy southpaw did not allow a runner to touch third base and had only one base runner reach scoring position on the entire day - a two-out double in the sixth.

Eckert became just the 14th pitcher in school history to post a pair of shutouts in the same season. Earlier this year on March 10, he delivered a one-hit shutout performance against Iona in Annapolis.

For the year, Eckert owns a 2-5 record with a 4.92 ERA over 11 starts, a span of 60.1 innings. He has allowed just 15 walks, while striking out 49 batters.

Navy, the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League Tournament, will play host to third-seeded Holy Cross in a best-of-three semifinal series next weekend in Annapolis. The two teams will play a pair of nine-inning contest on Saturday, starting at 12 noon, and will play a single nine-inning game on Sunday at 12 noon, if necessary. The Midshipmen went 3-1 against the Crusaders last weekend in Annapolis. Live stats for all of Navy's home games are available via GameTracker on www.NavySports.com(.)