ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy (13-9) concludes its five-game homestand on Wednesday afternoon against Coppin State (6-24). First pitch has been moved up to 3 p.m. from Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.
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 contest and maintain social distancing.
Navy comes into the week after splitting a four-game series against Holy Cross. Against the Crusaders, the Midshipmen hit .320 overall with a .416 slugging percentage and a .419 on-base percentage. For the weekend,
Nico Valdez hit .545 to lead Navy while
Christian Policelli had a .500 average to go along with his .917 slugging percentage en route to being named a Patriot League Honorable Mention Player of the Week. Policelli had a pair of doubles and a home run while scoring six of the team's 30 runs.
For the season, Navy has a Patriot League-leading .298 batting average while also leading the way with a .417 slugging percentage and a .411 on-base mark. Individually, Navy has five of the top seven batting averages in the Patriot League with
Zach Stevens leading the way at .354, which is third overall. Stevens leads the Patriot League with a .561 slugging percentage behind 11 extra-base hits. The trio of Valdez, Policelli and
Zane Raba lead the Patriot League in on-base percentage with Valdez and Raba tied for first with a .474 mark and Policelli is just behind at .473.
On the mound, Navy has a 6.60 ERA as a team with
Jared Leins leading the way with a 1.93 ERA. Leins joined Policelli as a Patriot League Honorable Mention Player of the Week after he tossed four no-hit innings against Holy Cross this past weekend, which including retiring 12-straight batters to end his outing. In 14 innings of work, Leins has 14 strikeouts and is allowing opponents to hit .146 on the year. As a staff, the Midshipmen are allowing opponents to hit .277 for the season and they have struck out 169 batters in 177-1/3 innings.
Coppin State comes into the midweek matchup with a record of 6-24 and it snapped a 14-game losing streak last time out after upending North Carolina A&T in the finale of a four-game series, 6-5. Jordan Hamberg has led the Eagles to a .276 team average with his .375 mark. Conner Walker – who has a .310 average – leads Coppin State with 26 RBIs and he has 11 extra-base hits for the club.
The Eagles have compiled a 7.11 team ERA in 220-1/3 innings. Rashad Ruff has a team-leading 4.50 ERA in his three appearances while Tyler Nichol has paced the team to 214 strikeouts with 32 in 27 innings of work. Aaron Rea is second on the team with 31 strikeouts and he has two of the team's six wins on the mound.
Navy and Coppin State have met twice earlier this season where the Midshipmen grabbed two wins over the Eagles, 7-2 and 16-11, to start the season for both squads.
After Wednesday's contest, the Midshipmen will hit the road to start a three-game series with Lehigh on Saturday starting at noon. Navy returns home on Sunday to complete the series with the Mountain Hawks with first pitch set for 2 p.m.
