Paul Kostacopoulos faces countless decisions, great and small, every day as Navy's head baseball coach. But for the past four years, Travis Blue has helped take some of the stress out of the job.
Kostacopoulos has penciled in Blue at shortstop on every single lineup card. By now, the veteran coach has stopped considering sending anybody else. Even for, say, a couple innings late in a blowout.
"He gets grumpy when he gets taken out," Kostacopoulos said. "So we just keep him in there now."
By his coach's estimation, Blue has missed only a handful of innings during his college career. Navy's Iron Man reached the program record for career starts when he opened the game at Maryland Eastern Shore April 12. He started all 220 games possible heading into his final Patriot League Tournament.
