Baseball is a funny game. You can get swept one day and then shut out your opponent the next. The thing is, you’ll still be in good shape.

Ask Army, it happened to them this past weekend. After being swept by Bucknell on Saturday, they went out and shut out rival Navy in its Sunday doubleheader in Annapolis.

Can the Black Knights get back into form and make another strong run through the Patriot League?

Results

Friday

Air Force 17, New Mexico 2

Saturday

Bucknell 7, Army 3

Navy 9, Holy Cross 5

New Mexico 11, Air Force 5

Bucknell 5, Army 3

Holy Cross 10, Navy 3

Sunday

Army 7, Navy 0

New Mexico 12, Air Force 7

Army 9, Navy 0

Tuesday

UMBC 11, Navy 5

Wednesday

Hofstra, Army PPD

Schedule

Friday

Air Force vs Fresno State – 9 p.m. EST (Mountain West Network)

Saturday

Navy vs Lehigh – NOON

Holy Cross vs Army – 1 p.m.

Navy vs Lehigh – 2:30 p.m.

Holy Cross vs Army – 3:30 p.m.

Air Force vs Fresno State – 9 p.m. (Mountain West Network)

Sunday

Navy vs Lafayette – NOON (ESPN+)

Holy Cross vs Army – 1 p.m. (ESPN+)

Navy vs Lafayette – 2:30 p.m. (ESPN+)

Air Force vs Fresno State – 4 p.m. (Mountain West Network)

Tuesday

Air Force vs Abilene Christian – 7 p.m. (ESPN+)

Wednesday

Army vs Siena – 3 p.m. (Siena All-Access)

Air Force vs Abilene Christian – 4 p.m. (WAC Digital Network)

Navy vs Maryland – 6 p.m. (Big Ten Network +)

Army

Army had never shut out Navy twice in a baseball season. But you know what they say, history is made to be broken. The Black Knights did that on Sunday.

They dominated the Midshipmen in a doubleheader, winning by scores of 7-0 and 9-0. It was the first time since 2018 that Army had pulled off a doubleheader sweep against the Midshipmen.

Obviously, the pitching was on its A-game for this to happen. Patriot League pitcher of the week, Patrick Melampy, pitched the first complete-game shutout for the program since 2018 in game one and Brian Dawson pitched a six-inning quality start in game two.

“We did a good job on the mound today, the defense was solid, and we got back to playing the style of baseball we like to play,” head coach Jim Foster said postgame, “It all starts on the mound and Melampy and Dawson were very good for us today in that aspect.”

The Black Knights will look to add to its winning streak as they host Holy Cross this weekend for four games. Army took five of six from the Crusaders last season.

Air Force

It’s a popular opinion that Friday is the best day of the week and Air Force baseball probably agrees with that. They smacked New Mexico on Friday afternoon by a score of 17-2, picking up the fourth Friday win of the season.

Paul Skenes pitched a gem for the Falcons, tossing five scoreless innings. Behind him, the offense put together 20 hits, dropping seven runs in the second and easing to victory.

Now only if they could translate that offense into the other two days of the weekend. They didn’t hold a lead over New Mexico for the remaining 18 innings, dropping the series to the Lobos and moving to 2-6 in Mountain West play.

The Falcons will look to rebound with a three-game series against Fresno State. Last season, the Bulldogs took two of three.

Navy

It’s been a tough stretch for the Midshipmen. Including their shutout sweep against Army over the weekend, they have lost four straight by six or more runs.

“As I told the players, I know they are hurting, I know they made a lot of sacrifices to play here. Right now, things aren’t going our way,” head coach Paul Kostacopoulos said after the Army doubleheader.

They were shut out twice for the first time ever against Army, following it with an 11-5 loss against UMBC where they scrapped late to make it into a game.

Navy will look to snap its losing streak as they visit Lafayette and Lehigh this weekend. The Midshipmen were 5-8 against the rivals in 2021.