Baseball Keys In for Clash at Navy

Saturday, April 23

Annapolis, MD

12 PM

Army West Point

Navy

Baseball Keys In for Clash at Navy

April 22, 2016 | Baseball

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point baseball team continues Patriot League action with a weekend series in Annapolis, Md., against its service academy rival Navy on March 23-24 at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • CBS Sports Network (Game One Only)
VIDEO • Patriot League Network
RADIO • Knight Vision
LIVE STATS • NavySports.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_Baseball

The Black Knights come into the series with a record of 14-24 and 5-7 in the Patriot League, while Navy is 29-11-1 overall and 8-4 in league play. Army currently sits in fifth place in the Patriot League while Navy is the only team with an overall record above .500.

CBS Sports will be broadcasting the first game of the series on Saturday with Andrew Catalon and Brandon Tierney on the call. Catalon, the 2014 Monahan & Wallace ECAC-SIDA Media Award winner, will handle the play-by-play responsibilities, while Tierney will be the color analyst.

The series is for not only bragging rights, but can also have playoff implications. Army is currently one game behind Lafayette, who is 6-6 in league play, although the Leopards hold the head-to-head tie breaker.

Navy holds a slight 113-108 advantage in the all-time series, although the Black Knights have closed the gap as of late. Since 2006, Army holds a 31-15 advantage over the Mids, including a 4-2 record in the Patriot League Tournament and taking eight of the last 10 stars.

Both teams are looking to rebound from midweek setbacks as Navy lost to UMBC, 6-4 on Wednesday, while Army dropped a 3-2 decision at NYIT.

On the season, the Black Knights are hitting .257 as a team, being led by Jon Rosoff at .339. Kris Lindner has been an offensive sparkplug for Army, hitting .333 with an on-base percentage of .460 which ranks second in the Patriot League. Lindner has been walked 18 times and hit by a league-high 13 pitches.

The Army pitching staff has been captained by its youth, with some veteran experience to secure things on the back end. Freshman Daniel Burggraaf, the reigning Patriot League Pitcher of the Week and AAA Athlete of the Week, has been reliable for head coach Matt Reid in the weekend rotation, posting a 2-1 record with a team-best 3.56 earned run average. Fellow rookie Jacob Carte has provided some quality innings coming out of the bullpen in key situations. Sophomore Jeremy Mortensen has been a constant all season, ranking in the Patriot League's top-10 list in multiple categories including opponent batting average, strikeouts, strikeouts looking, and starts.

The Midshipmen enter the weekend with a team batting average of .299 and an ERA of 2.79. Leading the offensive campaign is Leland Saile, with a .371 average, while Robert Currie is stroking a .366 average with 53 hits and 35 runs scored through 41 games. On the mound, Luke Gillingham has been the ace, boasting a team-best 6-2 record to go along with his 64 strikeouts and 15 walks in 61.0 innings of work. The senior lefty has tossed six complete games, three of which were shutouts in the seven-inning series openers.

First pitch for both days is scheduled for noon.

For more information on Army West Point baseball, visit GoArmyWestPoint.com and follow @ArmyWP_Baseball on Twitter.

PROBABLE MATCHUPS
Game One: Matt Ball (2-6, 5.80 ERA) vs. Luke Gillingham (6-2, 1.62 ERA)
Game Two: Jeremy Mortensen (2-3, 5.36 ERA) vs. George Coughlin (3-3, 2.91 ERA)
Game Three: Tyler Giovinco (1-3, 8.38 ERA) vs. Noah Song (5-2, 2.19 ERA)
Game Four: Daniel Burggraaf (2-1, 3.56 ERA) vs. Kyle Condry (4-0, 3.27 ERA)