ANNAPOLIS, Md. – With just three weekends left in the Patriot League regular season, Navy (11-7, 6-7 Patriot League) returns home this weekend for a four-game set against Holy Cross (6-10, 5-7 Patriot League) on Saturday and Sunday at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium. Saturday's doubleheader has been pushed up to an 11 a.m. start with Sunday's action slated to start at noon.
 
Following the guidelines set by state and local government officials, Navy will allow limited attendance at its home baseball games this spring. Spectators will be required to wear a mask throughout the contests and maintain social distancing.
 
The Midshipmen enter the weekend after dropping two of three games against Bucknell this past weekend. Over the three games, Navy hit .250 overall and combined for 24 hits with 12 coming in the series finale. Overall, the Midshipmen lead the Patriot League with a .293 batting average with Logan Keller and Zach Stevens leading the way with averages over .356 and .353, respectively. The Navy pair rank second and third in the league with Keller leading the league with 21 RBIs and Stevens is second in the Patriot League with his .544 slugging percentage.
 
Navy's pitching staff has a 5.94 ERA on the season after allowing 18 earned runs last weekend against the Bison. Nolan Jorgenson picked up his first collegiate win last week after a hitless 2-2/3 innings against Bucknell. Jorgenson has a team-low 1.50 ERA in four appearances and Jared Leins leads the starting rotation for the Midshipmen with a 2.70 ERA. As a staff, Navy has 143 strikeouts in 145-1/3 innings with Charlie Connolly's 36 punchouts leading the way and the Midshipmen have allowed opponents to hit .272 this year.
 
Holy Cross won the final game of its weekend series at Lafayette last time out to snap a three-game skid. The Crusaders have had strong pitching throughout the season and rank third in the Patriot League with a team ERA of 4.66. Jack DiLauro leads the way with a league-best 1.90 ERA in his four starts and he is tied for the team lead in strikeouts with 26. Garret Keough has a 1.88 ERA in 14-1/3 innings of work and is allowing opponents to hit .149.
 
The Holy Cross offense has hit just .221 at the plate this spring with Thomas Latham leading the way with a .294 average and his 15 hits are tied with Sam Kirkpatrick for most on the team. Peter Dudunakis has seven of the team's 30 extra-base hits and two of their three home runs for a .471 slugging percentage. Dudunakis – who is the only starter with a slugging percentage over .350 – also leads the way with 15 RBIs.
 
In the all-time series, Navy holds a record of 78-48 against the Crusaders and the Midshipmen have not lost a regular-season series to Holy Cross since the 2015 season. During the season series in 2019, the two teams split a doubleheader in Worcester, Mass., before Navy clinched the season series with a doubleheader sweep in Annapolis in April. However, the Crusaders avoided the weekend sweep with a 4-1 victory in the series finale.
 
After the four-game series, Navy finishes its five-game homestand on Wednesday against Coppin State at 6 p.m. Then, the Midshipmen take on Lehigh in a three-game, home-and-home series next Saturday and Sunday.