Baseball Begins Patriot League Semifinal Series Saturday at West Point

#4 Bucknell (21-22, 12-13 PL) at #1 Army West Point (27-20, 16-8 PL)
What: Best 2-of-3 Patriot League Tournament Semifinal Series
Game 1: Saturday, 1 p.m.
Game 2: Monday, 1 p.m.
Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, 45 minutes after conclusion of Game 2
Where: Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field, West point, N.Y.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoArmyWestPoint.com

SETTING THE SCENE
• Bucknell and Army West Point have met in each of the last two Patriot League Tournament championship series, and now these two teams will meet again in the postseason but this time in the semifinal round.
• Army has won the last five Patriot League titles, while the Bison are in search of their first crown since 2014.
• Due to Bucknell's Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, this series will be played on Saturday and Monday at Army's Doubleday Field. All games are nine innings, with two games played on Monday if the series requires a deciding third game.
• The winner of the Bucknell-Army series will move on to face either No. 2 Navy or No. 3 Holy Cross in the championship series next week.

COMING IN HOT
• Bucknell clinched a Patriot League Tournament berth on the final weekend of its regular season, thanks to a three-game sweep of Lafayette at Depew Field on Apr. 26-28. Due to final exams, the Bison have been idle since then.
• The Bison, who trailed the Leopards in the standings entering that series, secured the No. 4 seed with a 12-13 Patriot League record.
• The Bucknell bats were scorching hot prior to the exam break. In four games during the final week of the regular season — an 18-10 win over Villanova and the three-game sweep of Lafayette — the Bison offense combined for a .431 batting average, a .546 on-base percentage, and an .832 slugging percentage. That adds up to a staggering 1.378 team OPS. Of the team's 59 hits during that week, 28 went for extra bases, including 11 home runs, and the Bison scored 12 or more runs in four straight games for the first time in team history.
• Sean Keys was named the Patriot League Player of the Week following that stretch, when he slashed .611/.696/1.389 for an absurd 2.085 OPS. He hit three home runs, two of which were grand slams, and drove in 16 runs in the four games.
• Also finishing the regular season hot were Billy Kender, Jacob Corson, and Chris Morabito. Kender went 11-for-15 with eight walks in the final four games, good for a .733 batting average and an .826 on-base percentage. Corson went 10-for-20 with four home runs and 11 RBIs, with three of the homers coming in a record-setting performance in game two of the Lafayette series. Morabito was 6-for-11 (.545) with a pair of triples and four RBIs in the final week, and he was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week for the first time.

BUCKNELL IN THE POSTSEASON
• Bucknell is seeking its seventh Patriot League Tournament title, and likewise its seventh NCAA Tournament bid. The team's last NCAA appearance came in 2014.
• Prior to the Patriot League era, Bucknell won conference titles in 1950 (Middle Atlantic Conference), 1951 (MAC), and 1969 (MAC).
• The Bison are 35-31 in 20 previous PL Tournament appearances, including an 8-11 record against Army.
• Since the Patriot League adopted the current tournament format of best-of-three semifinal and championship series on consecutive weekends in 2008, Bucknell has played in the final series six times, including each of the last two seasons. The Bison won their first three championship series but have dropped the last three.

Bucknell in Patriot League Championship Series
2008   Defeated Navy, two games to none
2010   Defeated Holy Cross, two games to one
2014   Defeated Lehigh, two games to none
2017   Lost to Holy Cross, two games to none
2022   Lost to Army, two games to one
2023   Lost to Army, two games to none

Bucknell's PL Regular Season Titles
Outright: 1996, 2003
Shared: 1999, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2014

Bucknell's PL Tournament Titles
1996, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2014

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
• Junior third baseman Sean Keys this week became the fifth Bucknell player to be named Patriot League Player of the Year. The last was Andrew Brouse in 2010, and the others were Kevin Silverman in 1996, Frank Fresconi in 2000, and Jason Buursma in 2008.
• Keys is now a two-time First Team All-Patriot League honoree, and he enters the postseason with one of the nation's most impressive stat lines. The team co-captain is leading the conference in every percentage category (.416 average, .535 on-base percentage, .825 slugging percentage, 1.360 OPS) as well as hits (64), runs batted in (57), and doubles (18). He ranks second in the league in home runs with 13, and among the NCAA Division I leaders he is sixth in OPS and OBP, 10th in batting average, and 13th in slugging percentage.
• His .721 career slugging percentage would be a school record, and he also currently ranks third in team history in career homers (27), fourth in OBP (.474), fifth in BA (.362), and seventh in RBIs (124).
• Keys was listed as the No. 8 third baseman in D1Baseball.com's mid-season position rankings, and he moved up to No. 5 in the Week 12 rankings on Wednesday. He is the only player in the top 10 not from the Southeastern Conference or Atlantic Coast Conference.

D1Baseball.com Third Base Rankings
1. Charlie Condon, Georgia
2. Gage Miller, Alabama
3. Tommy White, LSU
4. Cam Smith, Florida State
5. Sean Keys, Bucknell

• After a bit of a slow start defensively in the cold months of February and March, Keys has been outstanding at the hot corner in the second half of the season. He has only one error in his last 19 games and none in his last 13, and his diving play to end the game and strand the tying run at third in the bottom of the ninth at Lafayette on Apr. 6 was one of the team's plays of the year.

PAR FOR THE CORSON
• Junior left-fielder Jacob Corson moved up to the All-Patriot League First Team this season after receiving Second Team honors as a third baseman in 2022 and as an outfielder in 2023.
• This year he has started every game in left field and is slashing .294/.420/.589 for a 1.009 OPS. He ranks fourth in the league in doubles (13), fifth in slugging, homers (11), and RBIs (43), sixth in runs scored (41), and ninth in OPS.
• Corson recently had a memorable afternoon against Lafayette when he became the third player in Patriot League history to homer three times in one game. That was part of a four-homer weekend as Bucknell swept the series and clinched a postseason berth.
• The local product from Hughesville High School recently became Bucknell's all-time leader in hit-by-pitches with 40, and his 98 career walks are one shy of Ian Joseph's career record. Corson's 22 career home runs and 125 career RBIs are sixth-most in team history, and his 131 runs scored rank seventh.

KENDER REPEATS AS FIRST TEAM KEYSTONE SACKER
• Junior second baseman Billy Kender is a First Team All-Patriot League honoree for the second straight year.
• Kender is fifth in the league batting race with a .357 average, and he also ranks third in OBP (.478), ninth in slugging (.563), and fifth in OPS (1.041).
• After missing two weeks with a foot injury in the middle of the season, Kender was inserted into the leadoff spot in the order upon his return and has been outstanding in that role. In the 16 games since his return to the lineup, he has slashed .400/.500/.677 for a 1.177 OPS along with three homers, nine doubles, nine RBIs, 25 runs scored, and only one error in the field. Not coincidentally, Bucknell is 11-5 in that span.
• Kender brings a 10-game hitting streak into the postseason, including his first career five-hit game in Bucknell's most recent outing against Lafayette on Apr. 28. In that pivotal three-game sweep of the Leopards, Kender went 9-for-13 with four walks. Earlier that week, he tied team records with four walks and five runs scored in a win over Villanova.

TROMMER'S BREAKOUT SEASON
• Sophomore Michael Trommer has been one of the team's breakout stars this season. After appearing in seven games and going 1-for-3 with five walks as a freshman in 2023, Trommer won the starting DH job this season and is now hitting in the cleanup spot in the order.
• His .360 batting average ranks fourth in the Patriot League while his .461 OBP ranks sixth.
• Trommer belted his first career home run at Lehigh and recently added two more in back-to-back games against Villanova and Lafayette.

MORABITO NAMED PL'S TOP ROOKIE
• Freshman Chris Morabito earned Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors as well as a Second Team All-PL nod. Morabito is Bucknell's fifth Patriot League Rookie of the Year and the first since current assistant coach Brett Smith in 2014. They were preceded by Phil Futrick in 2003, Ben Yoder in 2007, and Andrew Andreychik in 2013.
• Morabito has taken over as the team's regular right-fielder and has posted two-hit games in each of his last four starts to raise his season average to .304. In 32 games (20 starts) this season, Morabito has two homers, 17 RBIs, and 16 runs scored.
• He was recently named Patriot League Rookie of the Week after going 6-for-10 with a pair of triples in the Lafayette series.
• Morabito is the first Bucknell freshman to earn All-Patriot League honors since current junior first-baseman Tyler Dunn in 2022.

T.O. ASSUMES ACE ROLE
• Junior Tyler O'Neill — who was classmates with Billy Kender at Mepham High School — has emerged as the ace of the pitching staff, and he earned Second Team All-Patriot League honors this spring.
• O'Neill has been particularly impressive in Patriot League play as the team's No. 1 starter. In his seven league starts, he has worked at least 6.0 innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs in six of them.
• O'Neill allowed one run over six innings in a hard-luck 2-0 loss to Navy, and he allowed only one run in a seven-inning complete game win over Lehigh on Apr. 13. He then came back four days later to get the final out in the bottom of the ninth and earn a save in a key 7-4 road win over Navy.
• O'Neill's four wins are tied for seventh-most in the Patriot League, and he ranks third in strikeouts (63) and 10th in ERA (5.31). His ERA in league games is 3.43, which is seventh-best in the loop.
• A first-time All-Patriot League honoree, O'Neill now has 10 career wins, and his 149 career strikeouts rank 15th in team history.

GETTING IT DONE IN THE CLASSROOM
• The Bison baseball team has enjoyed success on and off the field this year. Last semester, the team combined for a stellar 3.36 grade-point average.
• Sean Keys backed up his Patriot League Player of the Year honor with a second straight spot on the Academic All-Patriot League Team. Keys is a mechanical engineering major with a 3.58 GPA.
• Senior pitcher Graeme Carroll and junior shortstop Brady Karp joined Keys on the Academic All-PL squad. Carroll is a mechanical engineering major with a 3.77 GPA, and Karp is a finance major with a perfect 4.00 GPA.
• Carroll has been one of the team's most valuable relief pitchers in 2024. He leads the team with 19 appearances and has a 5-0 record with a 4.99 earned run average. The five wins are one shy of the Patriot League lead, and he also has two saves this season, both coming in a February series against Massachusetts when the Bison took three out of four. Carroll pitched four no-hit innings in the latter of those two games and earned Patriot League Pitcher of the Week honors for his efforts.
• Carroll, a sidewinding righthander, has pitched more than one inning in 14 of his 19 appearances and has worked at least three innings six times. The Bison are 13-6 in games that he has pitched.
• Karp is in his first season as Bucknell's starting shortstop. He has been outstanding defensively with only two errors in 29 games, and after a slow start at the plate, he has become a reliable on-base guy at the bottom of Bucknell's potent lineup. Karp's season batting average is .191, but his on-base percentage is .404, and he has a team-high five sacrifice bunts.
• Karp's first career home run was a grand slam in a win at first-place Army on Apr. 20, and he added another homer in a win over Villanova at Depew Field three days later.

HEAD COACH SCOTT HEATHER IN 12TH SEASON
• Bison head coach Scott Heather is in his 12th season after succeeding Hall-of-Famer Gene Depew, who won 591 games from 1982-2012. Heather, who has presided over 222 victories, is second on Bucknell's all-time wins list behind his former mentor.
• Heather, who pitched collegiately at Arizona Western and Arkansas, was Bucknell's pitching coach for eight years before being named head coach following the 2012 season.

THE BUCKNELL-ARMY SERIES
• Bucknell is 65-91 all-time against Army dating back to 1910.
• Army won four of the five meetings this season, outscoring the Bison 55-23 in the process. The Black Knights swept a doubleheader at Depew Field on March 25 by scores of 9-1 and 21-5, and then they took 2 of 3 at Doubleday Field on Apr. 20-21. Army won the series opener 5-3 before Bucknell bounced back with a 10-6 win in game two of the Saturday doubleheader. Army then took the series finale 14-4.
• Bucknell and Army have met 19 times in Patriot League Tournament play, with the Black Knights winning 11 and the Bison eight.
• Since the Patriot League adopted the current postseason format, the Bison won PL semifinal series at Army in 2008 and 2010, while the Black Knights claimed a semifinal series in 2018 and the championship series in each of the last two seasons. Last year's final was the only one of the five that did not require a third and deciding game.
• The first-ever meeting between the two teams was a 7-5 Army win on June 4, 1910 at West Point. Bucknell out-hit the Cadets 14-7 but were crippled by six errors in the field. O'Leary led the Bison with three hits, while Whiteside had three for Army. The Orange & Blue student newspaper wrapped up its account of the game with this note: "Perhaps above all else should be mentioned the exceptionally fine treatment given the local team by the West Point men. But for the courtesy of the Army captain in regard to a disputed decision in the eighth inning, Bucknell might have scored three runs less."

Baseball Begins Patriot League Semifinal Series Saturday at West Point

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Players Mentioned

Graeme Carroll

Jacob Corson

Tyler Dunn

Brady Karp

Billy Kender

Sean Keys

Chris Morabito

Tyler O'Neill

Michael Trommer