ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy baseball (14-12, 9-11 Patriot League) caps off its regular-season schedule this weekend with a four-game series against Army (22-18, 14-8 Patriot League) at Palisades Credit Union Park – home of the New York Boulders in the Frontier League – in Pomona, N.Y. Saturday's doubleheader begins at 1 p.m. with action on Sunday beginning at 2:30 p.m. with CBS Sports Network broadcasting the first game on Sunday afternoon.
Tickets are on sale for $15 for both days and $10 for a one-day ticket. Tickets can be purchased online
here and at the Palisades Credit Union Park box office. Members of the military attending in uniform will receive free admission to that day's games.
Heading into the weekend, the Midshipmen are fighting for a spot in the Patriot League Tournament where the four teams with the best overall Patriot League record make the postseason. Navy is currently fourth in the league standings with all six teams in the league playing four games this weekend.
The four-game series is also for the Star, which is part of the Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA. Navy clinched the Star Series over Army with a record of 12-7 as the Midshipmen earned Stars in men's cross country, men's basketball, wrestling, men's and women's indoor track & field, women's lacrosse, men's and women's outdoor track & field, men's tennis, men's and women's swimming & diving and men's lacrosse.
Coming into the weekend, the Midshipmen dropped the first two games of their series against Lehigh but Navy bounced back and won the final game of the series on Senior Day, 7-2. In the Midshipmen's victory,
Nico Valdez,
Christian Policelli and
Zane Raba led the way with multi-hit games where Raba scored three of Navy's seven runs in the contest.
This season, the Midshipmen's offense has been tops in the Patriot League with a .292 batting average and they also lead the league in slugging percentage (.404) and on-base percentage (.403). Valdez has a team-best .347 batting average to rank second in the Patriot League and Policelli is just behind with a .343 average. Policelli also ranks seventh with a .500 slugging percentage and sixth in on-base percentage at .457. Freshman
Logan Keller is second in the league with 28 RBIs and is the only player in the top five who has played less than 30 games this season. Fellow freshman Raba paces the league with a .480 on-base percentage and is just ahead of Valdez who is reaching base at a .467 clip.
On the mound, Navy has a 6.62 ERA with
Jared Leins leading the way with a 1.62 ERA and he is allowing opponents to hit .140 at the dish.
Charlie Connolly leads Navy with 39 strikeouts in 28 innings of work and he is tied for second in the Patriot League with four wins in just six starts while ranking fifth in the league with a 3.86 ERA.
Army comes into the weekend with a record of 22-18 and has won its last five games. The Black Knights – who are 14-8 on the Patriot League – are one of two teams to clinch a spot in the Patriot League Tournament along with Lehigh. After dropping the opening game against Holy Cross last weekend, Army won the final three games against the Crusaders and then beat Sacred Heart and Fordham in the midweek.
The Black Knights rank second in the league in both offense and pitching with a .273 team average to go along with a 4.82 team ERA. Leading the offense has been the trio of Ross Friedrick, Anthony Giachin and Nick Manesis who are all hitting over .300. Friedrick leads the way in average (.329), Giachin leads in on-base percentage (.443) and Manesis has a team-leading slugging percentage (.526). On the mound, Patrick Melampy has paced Army with a 3.29 ERA in 38-1/3 innings of work and has a team-high 43 punchouts.
After facing off 15 times over the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Army and Navy square off for the first time in 720 days. In the all-time series, the Midshipmen hold a record of 126-118 all-time. The first game of the series will also be the 2,000th Army-Navy meeting overall across all sports. In the all-time series, Navy holds a record of 1,112-843-44 against Army.
Following the weekend series, the Patriot League Tournament gets underway next Saturday and Sunday with the semifinals and the championship series is set for May 21-23.
