April 12, 2011

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy baseball team will take a break from conference play on Wednesday when it travels to Fairfax, Va., to meet George Mason at 3 p.m. Having split a four-game series at Army last weekend, Navy enters Wednesday's game at 20-13-1 on the year. George Mason is 14-19-1 overall.

Midweek Quick Hitters
• Wednesday's contest marks the first meeting between the two teams since 2007, when the teams split a pair of games ... Navy leads the all-time series, 16-12.
• Navy has the highest win total (20) and overall winning percentage (.603) of any team in the Patriot League.
• Freshman pitcher Preston Gainey was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week on Monday ... Gainey earned his first-career save on Saturday as he held Army scoreless over the final 3.1 innings to ensure Navy's one-run victory.
• The Navy pitching staff currently leads the conference in team ERA at 5.17 ... With the highest total of innings pitched (285.1), Navy has allowed the third-fewest runs in the league (194), fewest home runs (12), and it leads the conference in total strikeouts (234).
• Alex Azor continues to lead the team in batting average at .384, which ranks second in the conference ... He is the only non-senior currently in the top eight in the conference in batting average.
• Sophomore Greg Dupell now has five home runs this season after hitting three in five games last week ... Dupell's five home runs rank fourth in the conference.
• Several Midshipmen lead the Patriot League in selected statistical categories, including: Brandon Beans in triples (five), Azor in hits (53) and runs scored (36), Ben Nelson in strikeouts (43), inning pitched (47.2) and games started (nine).
• Sophomore Dave Milanes enters Wednesday's game with a team-high, eight-game hitting streak and has reached base safely in 14 consecutive contests.
• The Midshipmen have committed a total of just three errors in their last six games, which is the fewest amount of errors they have committed in any six-game stretch this season.

About George Mason
The Patriots are 3-2 in their last five games and dropped two of three games to VCU this past weekend in Fairfax ... The Patriots are currently 3-12 in CAA play ... As a team, Mason is hitting .295 and has an on-base percentage of .399 ... Dan Schafferman leads the Patriots with a .402 batting average ... The Patriots have a pair of juniors each with over 30 RBIs this season in Zack Helgeson (31) and Brig Tison (30) ... The Mason pitching staff has an ERA 5.29, with opponents hitting .301 against the Patriots ... Navy and George Mason share three common opponents - the Patriots defeated Mount St. Mary's, 9-5, but fell to Maryland, 3-2, and Georgetown, 10-6.

Up Next
Navy will return to Patriot League play this weekend when it hosts Bucknell for a four-game set at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium. Doubleheaders are scheduled for 12 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.