Baseball Heads to Holy Cross for Patriot League Championship

WORCESTER, Mass. – It all comes down to this.

Army West Point Baseball will seek a seventh consecutive Patriot League Tournament crown this weekend, going to Holy Cross for a best-of-three series beginning Saturday.

The Black Knights—25-23 overall in 2025—won a thrilling semifinal series at Navy May 10-11 to punch their ticket to the championship. The Crusaders are coming off a Patriot League regular season title with a 29-23 overall record and a 17-8 Patriot League mark.

Head Coach Chris Tracz—in his third year at the program's helm—is in his third Patriot League Championship Series.

Due to forecasted weather, the series was pushed back one day. Game 1 of the series is now slated for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Game 2 is now Monday at 6:00 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, will be at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday. All games will be streamed on ESPN+.

Notes and Storylines

» Going into May 11 down 1-0 in the Patriot League Semifinal Series—and standing at 1-5 overall on the season against its arch-rival—Army won two games at Max Bishop Stadium in Annapolis to secure the playoff series and clinch a spot in the Patriot League Championship series.

A high-scoring afternoon morphed into a pitchers' showdown between Army's Trey Ates and Navy's star closer Landon Kruer. The two relievers exchanged zeros on the scoreboard, but the senor from Dallas would ultimately be the pitcher who earned the win for his team, with six scoreless innings including the nightcap's ultimate 10th stanza.

Thomas Schreck walked with the bases loaded in the top of the extra inning, allowing Michael Delph to cross the plate as the winning run. Navy got the go-ahead run to the plate in the bottom of the inning, but a flyout to Addison Ainsworth proved to be the final page in a storybook ending of a 6-5 win.

The all-time series between Army and Navy now stands tied at 136 wins each. Army is now 14-8 all-time vs. Navy in extra innings and the win was the program's fifth straight postseason series win over the Mids. The game was Army's first extra innings Patriot League postseason game since May 10, 2008, in Game 1 of the semifinals vs. Bucknell.

» Dating back to 2018, Army has won 12 consecutive Patriot League
Tournament elimination games. This includes two semifinal games in each of the past three season over Lafayette, Bucknell and Navy, as well as a 2019 semifinal game at Holy Cross.

» Army and Holy Cross met five times in the 2025 regular season, with four matchups in Worcester. The Black Knights were 2-2 at Fitton Field April 4-6 and lost the matchup at home April 16. All four games in Worcester were part of a pair of doubleheaders.

Andrew Berg and Joe Valchar turned it outstanding pitching performances in Games 1 and 4 of the four-game series at Holy Cross, with Berg collecting a seven-inning complete-game shutout April 4 and Valchar allowing no runs over eight innings pitched April 6, with seven strikeouts.

» Justin Lehman has proven himself as one of the nation's leading two-way players, earning a spot on the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award Watch List. Michael Delph was also named to the watch list. The winner of the 2025 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award will be announced on June 17.

Lehman was also named John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Week May 13, after a legendary performance in Army's semifinal series win at Navy. The senior earned the start in Army's win in Game 2 of the series, which was also the first game of Sunday's twin bill. Lehman collected his second career start vs. Navy of over 100 pitches, with 142 total pitches over seven innings, allowing just one run, collecting six strikeouts and taking the win.

Lehman also started each game in the batting order, going 5-for-13 with four RBIs across the best-of-three series. In Sunday evening's decisive matchup, the Fort Mill, S.C. native went 3-for-3 with a pair of walks drawn, including a leadoff walk in the 10th inning of Army's 6-5 win.

» RHP Andrew Berg leads the team with 60 strikeouts, a 3.21 ERA and 73.0 innings pitched. Of Berg's 11 starts this season, all but one have been five innings or longer, including five of seven innings or longer. Twice, Berg has pitched at least eight innings, going 8.1 frames in a March 15 win at Navy, and tossing eight innings in a 4-1 extra innings win at Bucknell April 25. In that win at Bucknell, Berg also surpassed the 100 career strikeouts mark.

Next Up

Should Army win, it will learn its NCAA Regional selection on Memorial Day, May 26. Its first regional matchup would then take place Friday, May 30.

Follow the Black Knights

Follow Army Baseball on X @ArmyWP_Baseball and on Instagram @armywp_baseball. Fans can also like Army West Point Athletics on Facebook and learn more about baseball and other programs at goarmywestpoint.com.

Baseball Heads to Holy Cross for Patriot League Championship

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Players Mentioned

Addison Ainsworth

Trey Ates

Andrew Berg

Michael Delph

Justin Lehman

Thomas Schreck

Joe Valchar

Army West Point Athletics