ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Coming off the winningest season in program history, the Navy baseball team, under the direction of 11th-year head coach Paul Kostacopoulos, will look to improve upon its 37-game win total and 2015 Patriot League runner-up result. On Wednesday, the program announced its 52-game schedule for 2016. A season-opening series at North Carolina A&T and the team’s annual trip to Kinston, N.C. for the Freedom Classic versus Air Force highlight the team’s early season non-conference schedule. The Mids will play a total of 32 games in Annapolis, including three weekend homestands against Patriot League opponents.
Navy begins its season on Feb. 19 with a three-game set in Greensboro, N.C. versus North Carolina A&T. This is will mark the third-ever series between the two schools as the Mids and Aggies kicked off the 2012 and 2015 seasons with three-game sets. In both series, Navy came out on top in two of the three contests.
The Mids will open their home slate at Terwilliger Brothers Field at Max Bishop Stadium with a Wednesday afternoon contest versus Coppin State on Feb. 14.
Two days after the matchup with the Eagles, the Mids will head back to North Carolina for the sixth edition of the Freedom Classic in Kinston, N.C. Beginning on Friday, Feb. 26, Navy and Air Force will meet up in a three-game series with single games each day at Historic Grainger Stadium. The weekend will be filled with patriotic events at the ballpark and around town for the teams and Kinston locals. In 2015, the teams split the first two games before the Falcons won game three and the series.
Following that weekend, the Mids begin a span of 17 home non-conference games in 25 days. A mid-week contest versus Delaware State on Wednesday, March 2 begins the stretch before Central Connecticut State comes in on the weekend for a three-game series beginning on Friday, March 4. After a home March 9 matchup against UMES, Navy will play its first Patriot League-style dual doubleheader weekend series with a pair of games versus Yale on Saturday, March 12 and Sunday, March 13. A road game at Towson on Thursday, March 17 breaks up the homestand momentarily before a dual doubleheader versus NJIT is slated for March 19 and 20. A quick trip to UMBC on Wednesday, March 23 leads into Navy’s final non-conference weekend, the program’s annual meeting with Princeton on March 26 and 27. The Mids and Tigers have met in the last weekend before Patriot League play in seven of the last eight years.
The final tune-up prior to opening league action will see Navy travel to Princess Anne, Md. to take on UMES on Wednesday, March 30.
Patriot League play begins on the weekend of April 2 with a four-game home series against Holy Cross. The Crusaders finished tied for second in the league with a 12-8 mark in the regular season. In 2015, Navy dropped three of four games in Worcester.
A pair of non-conference matchups at Georgetown on Tuesday, April 5 and home versus Coppin State on Wednesday, April 6 separates Navy from its next Patriot League opponent, Lafayette. The Leopards and Midshipmen will play a four-game series in Easton, Pa. on April 9 and 10. After going 3-1 against Lafayette in Annapolis in the regular season, Navy then took two of three in the teams’ postseason semifinal matchup at Max Bishop.
The Mids will next seek action with a non-conference game Wednesday, April 13 in Dover, Del. home of the Delaware State Hornets.
A four-game set at home versus Lehigh on the weekend of April 16 and 17 begins Navy’s final homestand of the regular season as the Mids will play nine straight games at the friendly confines of Max Bishop Stadium. First up, a matchup with the Mountain Hawks will give the Mids a chance for redemption after falling by one run in extra innings in the decisive third game of the 2015 Patriot League Championship. In seven meetings last spring, Lehigh held a 4-3 advantage with three of its wins coming by one run.
After Navy completes its home-and-home set versus UMBC with an April 19 matchup, the Mids will host their archrivals, the Black Knights of Army West Point in their final home series. The two teams will battle it out on the diamond on April 23 and 24. Last season, Navy clinched the regular season title with a 3-1 showing at West Point in the final weekend of conference play. All-time, Navy leads its series with Army, 113-108.
Five road games close out the regular season for the Mids with a contest in Fairfax, Va. versus George Mason on April 27 coming before a four-game set in Lewisburg, Pa. against Bucknell concludes the Patriot League portion of Navy’s schedule on April 30 and May 1.
The Patriot League Semifinals are scheduled to begin the weekend of May 14-15. 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 20-21 in a best-of-three championship series.
