ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy baseball head coach Paul Kostacopoulos announced his team’s 2015 schedule on Wednesday. A season-opening series at North Carolina A&T and the annual Freedom Classic in Kinston, N.C., highlight Navy’s non-conference schedule. The Mids will play a total of 25 games in Annapolis, including a pair of weekend homestands against Patriot League opponents.
Navy begins its season on Feb. 13 with a three-game set in Greensboro, N.C. versus North Carolina A&T. This is will mark the second series between the two schools as the Mids and Aggies kicked off the 2012 season with a three-game set. Navy came out on top in two of those three contests.
The Mids will open their home slate with a Wednesday afternoon contest versus Maryland Eastern Shore on Feb. 18.
Three days later, Navy will be back in action on the road as the team will travel to Norfolk, Va. for a three-game series versus the Spartans of Norfolk State. The two programs will play a doubleheader on Saturday before wrapping up the series with a single game on Sunday.
After another mid-week home game on Feb. 25 against Coppin State, the Mids will head back to North Carolina for the fifth edition of the Freedom Classic in Kinston, N.C. Beginning on Friday, Feb. 27, Navy and Air Force will meet up in a three-game series with single games each day at Grainger Stadium. In 2014, the Falcons came back after losing game one to win the final two contests.
Following that series, a home mid-week game against Delaware State on March 4 will start a run of 14 straight contests for the Mids at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium. Navy and Iona will play a three-game set from March 7-8 before UMBC comes in on March 11. The next five games at home will consist of a four-game series against New York Tech on March 13 through 15 and a single matchup against Georgetown on March 18. Navy’s annual meeting with Princeton will close out the homestand during the weekend of March 20 through 22. The Mids and Tigers have met in the final non-conference weekend before Patriot League play in six of the last seven years.
The final tune-up prior to opening league action will see Navy travel to Baltimore and take on UMBC on Wednesday, March 25.
Patriot League play begins on the weekend of March 28 with a four-game home series against the defending league champions, Bucknell. The Bison finished first in the league with a 15-5 mark in the regular season before defeating Navy and Lehigh in postseason play to earn the league’s automatic bid. Bucknell took all four games of 2014’s regular season series against Navy.
A home matchup with Coppin State on Wednesday, April 1 separates Navy from its next Patriot League opponent, Holy Cross. The Crusaders and Midshipmen will play a four-game series in Worcester, Mass. on April 4 and 5. The two teams split their matchup in Annapolis last season with Navy winning games two and three of the series.
The Mids will next seek action with a non-conference game Wednesday, April 8 in Princess Anne, Md. home of the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks.
In its final home series of the year on April 11 and 12, Navy will host Lafayette in Patriot League competition. The two squads split a four-game set in Easton, Pa. in 2014 with the Mids taking games one and three.
On the road for the final 10 games of its regular season, the Navy baseball team will match up versus Delaware State in Dover, Del. on April 15 before heading to Bethlehem, Pa. for a four-game series with the Lehigh Mountain Hawks from April 18 to 19. The Mids swept all four games in Annapolis against the Mountain Hawks in 2014 during their push for a postseason push bid.
A four-game set at Army closes the Patriot League portion of the Navy’s schedule, April 25-26. During their 2014 regular season meeting, the Black Knights took three of four games. All-time, Navy leads its series with Army, 110-107.
Navy’s final regular season game will take place on the road at Georgetown on Wednesday, April 29.
The Patriot League Semifinals are scheduled to begin the weekend of May 9-10. 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 16-17 in a best-of-three championship series.
