May 6, 2011

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy baseball team will play its final regular season road game this Sunday when its meets Maryland Eastern Shore at 1 p.m. in Princess Anne, Md. The Midshipmen enter Sunday's game at 28-20-1 on the season, while UMES is 8-37.

Navy Quick Hitters
• Navy captured its first Patriot League regular-season crown since 2002 and claimed sole possession of the top spot in the regular season for the first time since 2000.
• With 21 triples this season, Navy leads the conference and ranked in a tie for ninth in the nation when statistics were released on Tuesday.
• Ben Nelson earned his first-career Patriot League Pitcher of the Week honor on Monday ... The sophomore struck out a career-high 10 batters as he pitched his fourth complete game of the season in Navy's 4-2 win over Lafayette on Saturday.
• Preston Gainey garnered his second Patriot League Rookie of the Week accolade this week ... Gainey earned his second save of the season as he held Lafayette hitless over the final two and two-thirds innings in Navy's 4-2 win on Sunday.
• With seven RBIs last weekend, Dave Milanes brought his team-leading total to 46, which is the most RBIs by a Midshipman since 2009 when Kendall Bolt had 48 ... Milanes' 46 RBIs put him in a tie for 12th-place on Navy's single-season RBI list.
• Navy has played in 14 one-run games this season, going 8-6 in those contests ... Seven of Navy's last nine games have been decided by three runs or fewer.
• Navy's 12 wins in Patriot League play this season were the most since 2007 when it also won 12.
• The Midshipmen rank 19th in the nation in runs scored with 318.
• The Midshipmen are 24-4 this season when holding opponents to five runs or fewer.
• While his 14-game hitting streak was snapped on Sunday, freshman outfielder Taylor Cato leads the team with a .364 batting average.

About Maryland Eastern Shore
Maryland Eastern Shore enters Sunday's game with a six-game losing streak ... The Hawks last win came on April 23 when they completed a three-game sweep of Florida A&M ... Brian Chaikowsky, leads the team in several offensive categories, including batting average (.370), RBIs (34) and on-base percentage (.456) ... Tre-von Johnson is second on the team in batting average as he is currently hitting .333 ... As a team, the Hawks are hitting .265 ... The pitching staff has an ERA of 8.56, with a total of 223 strikeouts and 211 walks ... The Hawks have been successful in 45 of 55 stolen base attempts this season.

The Series
Navy leads the all-time series, 18-2, and has won the last 14 meetings.

The Last Meeting - April 19: Navy 10, UMES 3
Navy led, 4-3, in the sixth inning before scoring twice and then tacking on four more runs in the eighth to win the game, 10-3. Jordan Heller earned the win as he allowed one run off five hits and struck out five. In his first-career start, Chris Campbell went 1-for-4 at the plate and drove in three runs, while Dave Milanes had two RBIs.

Up Next
Navy will host Delaware State in its final regular season game on Wednesday, May 11 at 4 p.m.