ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Following a schedule change, the Navy baseball team (15-7, 4-0 Patriot League) will play its first two road games in Patriot League play on Sunday and Monday. The Midshipmen will travel to Army (10-9, 0-0 Patriot League) for a doubleheader starting at noon on Sunday in West Point, N.Y. Navy then makes the trip to Worcester, Mass., to take on Holy Cross (3-18, 0-0 Patriot League) on Monday afternoon for a doubleheader starting at noon.
 
Navy was originally scheduled to play at Holy Cross on Saturday, but rain and snow in the Worcester, Mass., has forced the doubleheader to be postponed to Monday starting at noon.
 
Coming into the weekend, the Midshipmen have won eight-straight games to run its record to 15-7 overall and they swept Bucknell in a four-game series last weekend to start Patriot League play with a record of 4-0.
 
Navy's offense has found its spark as of late and hit .305 against the Bison last weekend to push its team average up to .271, which is second in the Patriot League behind only Army. The pair of Christian Hodge and Zach Stevens paced the Midshipmen on offense last week to earn player and rookie of the week honors. On the season, Hodge is hitting .301 overall with 18 RBIs to lead the team. Zach Biggers has pushed his average up to .276 and is tied with Hodge with 18 RBIs. In Steven's 15 appearances this season, he is hitting .410 with 12 RBIs.
 
On the mound, Navy has a team ERA of 3.53 and a .225 opponent batting average to lead the Patriot League. The Midshipmen swept the league honors this past week after Jared Leins was selected as the pitcher of the week. This season, Leins has gone 1-0 with a 3.04 ERA in five starts. He ranks third on the team with 23 strikeouts as Navy has compiled 212 total strikeouts in 186-1/3 innings. Noah Song leads the charge in strikeouts with 65 to also lead the country. Song now has 332 strikeouts in his career to rank second all-time in the program record books and he is 15 strikeouts away from tying current strikeout leader Chuck Davis at 347 strikeouts.
 
Army -- who is slated to face Bucknell on Saturday -- comes into the weekend with a record of 10-9 overall and opened its home slate during the midweek going 1-1. The Black Knights lost to Stony Brook, 13-4, but rebounded to beat Hofstra, 9-5, on Wednesday. Army leads the Patriot League with a .278 batting average and is second only to Navy with a 3.87 ERA. Trey Martin leads the team with a .370 batting average and is one of four starters with an average over .300 for the Black Knights.
 
Cam Opp has paced the Army pitching staff out of the bullpen with a 2.45 ERA in seven appearances with a 2-0 record and a save.
 
Holy Cross faces Bucknell on Sunday before taking on the Midshipmen on Monday afternoon. The Crusaders have gone 3-18 to start the season but 12 of their first 21 games have come against 2018 NCAA Tournament teams. In the midweek, Holy Cross got back on the winning track with an 11-2 win against Massachusetts.
 
The Crusaders round out the Patriot League with a .203 batting average and have struck out 210 times. Ben Malgeri guides the offense with a .329 batting average and is third on the team with eight RBIs. Holy Cross has compiled a 7.43 ERA on the mound and is allowing the opposition to hit .313 at the plate. 
 
Last season, Navy met both Holy Cross and Army in the Patriot League Tournament. The Midshipmen rallied from a game down to beat the Crusaders in the semifinals, but the Black Knights won the first two games in Annapolis against Navy in the tournament final.
 
Army and Navy have met on the diamond 236 times before this weekend, where the Midshipmen hold a record 123-113 over the Black Knights. Despite losing in the postseason last year, Navy won the regular season series against Army, 3-2, and the Midshipmen also won the Star Series over the Black Knights.
 
In the all-time series between Holy Cross and Navy, the Midshipmen hold a 75-46 lead over the Crusaders. In the regular season last year, Navy won three of the five meetings to win the series as Holy Cross won just one game in each the three-game series at home and one game of the doubleheader in Annapolis. During the first postseason series, the Crusaders won the first game in the best-of-three series, but the Midshipmen rallied to win the final two games and advance to the tournament final.
 
First pitch of the weekend for Navy is set for noon on Sunday afternoon from Doubleday Field in West Point, N.Y., against Army. The Midshipmen then take on Holy Cross on Monday at noon at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass.