FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy baseball head coach Paul Kostacopoulos announced his team’s 2014 schedule on Thursday. A season-opening series at Florida A&M and the annual Freedom Classic in Kinston, N.C., highlight Navy’s non-conference schedule. The Mids will play a total of 33 games in Annapolis, including three weekend homestands against Patriot League opponents.
Navy begins its season on Feb. 14 with a three-game set in Tallahassee, Fla. versus Florida A&M. This is will mark the first meeting between the two schools since 2007 when the Mids played a three-game, season-opening series versus the Rattlers.
The next weekend, Navy and Air Force meet up for the fourth-annual Freedom Classic in Kinston, N.C., Feb. 21-23. The teams split a four-game set last year with the Mids winning games number one and three. This season’s format will consist of three single games at Grainger Stadium.
Navy will open its home slate with a Wednesday afternoon contest versus Coppin State on Feb. 26.
Three days later, beginning on March 1, the Mids will host seven games in an eight-day span. After a three-game set versus Cornell on March 1-2, Navy welcomes Georgetown (March 5), Penn (March 7), Monmouth (March 8) and Towson (March 9) in succession.
A road game at UMBC on Thursday, March 13, leads into another long homestand for the Mids as the they will host ten games between March 14 and March 26. The Quinnipiac Bobcats commence the stretch of contests with a four-game series, March 14-16. Navy and Quinnipiac have never met before on the diamond.
Single midweek games with Delaware State (March 19) and UMBC (March 26) sandwich four games versus Princeton on March 22 and 23 during the lengthy run of home matchups.
Patriot League play begins the following week with a four-game road series at Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa., March 29-30. The Bison finished fourth in the league last year with a 10-10 conference record, including three wins over the Mids in Annapolis.
A home matchup with Coppin State on Wednesday, April 2 separates Navy from its next Patriot League opponent, Holy Cross. The Crusaders and Midshipmen will play their four-game series at Max Bishop Field on April 5 and 6. The two teams split their matchup in Worcester last season.
Navy breaks from conference play for two days for a mid-week home-and-home series with Maryland Eastern Shore. The Hawks host the Mids on Tuesday, April 8 before playing in Annapolis on Wednesday.
The next Patriot League competition sees Navy hit the road for a four-game series in Easton, Pa. versus Lafayette, April 12-13. The Mids went 3-1 at home against the Leopards in 2013.
Navy plays another road contest on April 16 in College Park versus the University of Maryland. The Mids and Terps have met 91 times in the two schools’ history with Navy holding a 50-39-2 record, though as of late, Maryland is on an 11-game winning streak.
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks come to Annapolis for Navy’s second-to-last Patriot League series, April 19-20. The Mids swept the Mountain Hawks on the road in 2013 with four wins by a 27-11 margin.
Navy’s final non-conference road game of the regular season is scheduled for Wednesday, April 23, when it travels to Dover, Del. to take on Delaware State at 3 p.m.
A four-game set with Army at Max Bishop Field closes the Patriot League portion of the Navy’s schedule, April 26-27. During their 2013 regular season series, the Mids took three of four games versus the Black Knights before falling in the Patriot League Semifinals in two games. All-time, Navy leads its series with Army, 109-104.
Navy’s final regular season game will take place at home on Wednesday, April 30 against George Mason.
The Patriot League Semifinals are scheduled to begin the weekend of May 10-11. The conference’s top four teams qualify for the tournament, with the top two seeds hosting the lower two seeds in a best-of-three semifinal series. The two advancing teams will meet at the higher remaining seed on May 17-18 in a best-of-three championship series.
