Saturday, April 20
West Point, N.Y.
12 p.m.
Bucknell University
at
Army
Photo by: Lianne Garrahan
Baseball Travels to Army West Point for Three-Game Series
4/18/2024 4:19:00 PM | Baseball
Bucknell (16-20, 8-11 PL) at Army (20-16, 10-5 PL)
When:Â Saturday, Apr. 20, 12 p.m. (DH); Sunday, Apr. 21, 1 p.m.
Where:Â Doubleday Field, West Point, N.Y.
Watch:Â ESPN+
Live Stats:Â GoArmyWestPoint.com
Bucknell at a Glance
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When:Â Saturday, Apr. 20, 12 p.m. (DH); Sunday, Apr. 21, 1 p.m.
Where:Â Doubleday Field, West Point, N.Y.
Watch:Â ESPN+
Live Stats:Â GoArmyWestPoint.com
Bucknell at a Glance
- The Bison are trying to scrap their way back into postseason contention, and they have a big weekend ahead with a three-game series against first-place Army, the five-time defending Patriot League champion. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday at Doubleday Field.
- After a 2-8 stretch in Patriot League play dropped Bucknell into the bottom of the standings, the Bison have started to heat back up again. They took two of three from Lehigh last weekend, including an 18-8 run-rule rout in the finale after the bats had gone cold for a few weeks, and then on Wednesday they traveled to Annapolis and secured a big 7-4 win over Navy in the rubber-match of that five-game season series.
- Bucknell and Navy have both played 19 of their 25 Patriot League contests, while the other four teams have only played 15. Wednesday's win pushed the Bison back into fourth place – the top four teams qualify for the PL Tournament – ahead of Lehigh and Lafayette who are both 6-9. Army (10-5) jumped ahead of Navy (11-8) with a run-rule win over third-place Holy Cross (8-7) on Wednesday.
- The Bucknell-Army matchup is a reprise of the last two Patriot League championship series. The Black Knights defeated the Bison in three games in 2022 and swept the best-of-three set last season. Army also took both games at Depew Field earlier this year, sweeping a doubleheader by scores of 9-1 and 21-5.
- Bucknell was strong in all phases on Wednesday at Navy. The bats continued to heat back up, as the Bison scored seven runs on 11 hits against five Navy pitchers. Bucknell also played error-free defense behind its five arms, with sophomore starter Mikey Myro going five strong innings to secure his third win of the season. Jonathan Adelmann, Graeme Carroll, Nick Mulvey, and Tyler O'Neill finished it out. O'Neill, the team's No. 1 starter, entered with the tying run at the plate and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and he proceeded to strike out Brian Furey to end the game and pick up the save.
- DH Michael Trommer continued his breakout sophomore season with a career-high four RBIs at Navy. Trommer delivered a two-run single to give the Bison the lead for good in the third inning, and later he added two sacrifice flies.
- Trommer is now third in the Patriot League batting race with a .386 average. In fact, four of the league's top five in batting average will be playing in this series. Army's Chris Barr (.406) and William Parker (.359) rank first and fifth, respectively, while Bucknell's Sean Keys (.386) and Trommer rank 2-3.
- Trommer had his first career four-hit game against Lehigh last Sunday, and over his last two games is 5-for-8 with seven RBIs.
- Keys broke out of a brief slump with a 2-for-3 day with a couple of RBIs at Navy. Keys is slashing .386/.509/.764 for a 1.273 OPS. Keys leads the league in slugging percentage and OPS, with Army's Sam Ruta and Parker just behind him, and Keys is second in the league in on-base percentage to Barr (.520). Ruta (12) and Keys (10) are the only Patriot League players with double-digit home runs this season.
- Keys has reached base safely in all but three games this season, and he has a hit in all but five. That includes a pair of four-hit games and a cycle – the fourth in team history – on March 26 at Mount St. Mary's.
- Keys was listed as the No. 7 third baseman in D1Baseball's preseason positional rankings, and he is holding steady at No. 8 in the site's midseason rankings, which were released last week. Georgia star Charlie Condon, who many analysts project to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, sits atop DIBaseball's list of top-50 third basemen. Keys is the only player in the top 12 not from a team in the SEC or ACC. Ranked ahead of him are Condon, Tennessee's Billy Amick, Virginia Tech's Carson DeMartini, LSU's Tommy White, Alabama's Gage Miller, Florida State's Cam Smith, and Clemson's Blake Wright.
- Keys now has 24 home runs and 106 RBIs in 100 career games. The 24 homers are tied for third-most in team history alongside Jason Buursma. Next on the list is Andrew Brouse with 30. Keys is the 13th player in team history with 100 RBIs, and his .688 career slugging percentage would be a school record. Jacob Corson hit the 100-RBI mark earlier in the season, and Grant Voytovich needs four more to hit the milestone.Â
- Junior 2B Billy Kender has five multi-hit games in his last nine since returning from a foot injury. Kender moved into the leadoff spot in the lineup after the injury, and his season average now sits at .313, ninth-best in the Patriot League.
- Corson broke out of a 1-for-22 slide with a 3-for-4 day against Lehigh on Sunday. He drove in four runs, scored three, and belted his sixth home run of the season. He then went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks at Navy.
- Bucknell pitchers have compiled a 3.60 ERA and limited opponents to a .235 batting average over the last seven games, and in that span, the bullpen has allowed only three earned run in 21.2 innings.
- No. 1 starter Tyler O'Neill has posted complete-game wins over Lafayette and Lehigh in his last two starts, and he has now gone at least six innings while allowing three runs or fewer in each of his last five starts. O'Neill struck out seven in seven innings of work against both the Leopards and Mountain Hawks, and he now has 51 Ks in 48.2 innings pitched this season.
- Head coach Scott Heather is in his 12th season at the helm, tying him with Bill Lane (1946-57) as the third-longest tenured coach in program history. Heather's 217 career wins are second-most in team history, trailing only Hall-of-Famer Gene Depew (591).
- The Black Knights have won five of their last six after Wednesday's 15-3 rout of Holy Cross in Worcester. The Crusaders had split a four-game series at West Point earlier in the season.
- Army jumped all over Holy Cross starter Dan Mateffy early in that game, scoring in each of its first three at-bats before breaking it open with six runs in the top of the fifth inning. The Black Knights hit five home runs in the game, including two by William Parker, who went 5-for-6 with four RBIs. Braden Golinski was 4-for-6 with a homer and a double, and Coleson Titus had a three-hit day.
- Army leads the Patriot League with a .282 team batting average, and its 41 home runs are 12 more than any other team in the league.
- Chris Barr has 16 multi-hit games this season, including a four-hit day against Holy Cross on Apr. 7, to keep his league-best batting average over the .400 mark.
- Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year Sam Ruta is slashing .309/.467/.699 with 12 homers, 41 RBIs, and a 1.166 OPS. William Parker (1.072) and Barr (1.065) also have four-digit OPSs.
- On the mound, Army has a league-best 4.80 team ERA.
- Justin Lehman has a 3-2 record and a 1.26 ERA in six starters. Andrew Berg, brother of starting catcher Derek Berg, has also been outstanding with a 3-1 record and a 1.83 ERA.
- Andrew Berg started game one of the doubleheader at Bucknell on March 25 and allowed only an unearned run on four hits with eight strikeouts in 6.1 innings in Army's 9-1 win.
- Parker went 4-for-5 with a grand slam and a team-record-tying eight RBIs in the nightcap of that twin bill.
- Bucknell and Army first met in 1910, and the Black Knights have an 89-64 lead in the all-time series.
- Army took 6 of 7 from the Bison last season, including a pair of one-sided wins in the Patriot League Tournament final. Bucknell's win was an 11-7 verdict at West Point, as Grant Voytovich went 4-for-5 with a home run, and Jacob Corson and Tyler Dunn also went deep.Â
- These will be Bucknell's final road games of the regular season. The Bison will host Villanova in a non-league game on Tuesday afternoon, and then Lafayette comes in for three on Apr. 26-28.
- The Patriot League Tournament semifinal series will be hosted by the top two seeds on the weekend of May 10-11.
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