The
weather took care of the Ivy Group tournament over the weekend (I guess
they are smart enough to come out of the rain!), while the Patriot
League is in tune-up with the local independents. But there was plenty
of other action to be seen around the area.
Gotham Baseball "BEAST of the Week": Danny Etkin (LIU) - Etkin was a true "BEAST" week for Long Island, batting .545 with three home runs,
14 RBIs, 11 runs, four doubles and three steals. He opened up the week
with a 3-for-5, two-RBI day in a 12-8 win at Saint Peter's on April 30.
The senior then Etkin went 5-for-6 and drove in a Long Island
single-game record nine RBIs in a 27-9 win..
He hit a pair of
mammoth homers and added two doubles while scoring five runs. After
driving in another run in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader,
Etkin went 2-for-3 with two runs in the nightcap. He wrapped up the
weekend with a 3-for-4 performance on Senior Day, hitting a homer and
two doubles. He drove in two runs and scored two more.
Etkin was honored with NEC Player of the Week for his accomplishments.
Gotham Pitcher of the Week: Andrew Huebner (Wagner) - The
Seahawks closer was near perfect, pitching 4.1 innings of one-hit
relief, scattered over four appearances, as the Seahawks swept
Quinnipiac. He picked up three saves, giving him nine on the season,
while lowering his ERA to 2.28 in 17 appearances.
Gotham Baseball Team of the Week: Kean University
- The defending National Champions did something that did not
accomplish in 2007, win the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Cougars plowed right through the best of the rest of the NJAC,
winning all four contests. Their 12-4 defeat of Montclair State
University gives them and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
CONFERENCE COVERAGE SPONSORED BY
Big East
St.
John’s swept West Virginia over the weekend to stay on top of the
league, winning by scores of 2-1, 10-3, 6-5, to improve to 16-5 in Big
East conference play. Tom LaStella’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of
the 10th gave Colin Lynch his second win of the season, in the 2-1 win
over the Mountaineers.
George Brown improved to 9-0 with a
10-3 win, as the senior lefty allowed three runs in seven innings on
Saturday. Sunday was saved for dramatics, as Chris Anninos three-run
home run tied the game, and Carlos Del Rosario’s won it, as the Red
Storm rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the ninth, to win 6-5. Luis Monell
picked up his third win over the season.
The Red Storm, who
have locked up a spot in the Big East tournament, and are projected as
a #2 in the NCAA tournament brackets, improved to 35-10 overall on the
season.
Rutgers, meanwhile, sits tied for the final playoff
spot with Villanova at 9-12 overall after losing two of three to
Cincinnati over the weekend. The bullpen squandered a 10-3 lead after
seven innings, in dropping an 11-10 decision in the series opener.
Jaren Matthews’ had five hits and three RBI and Luis Feliz’ three hits
and four RBI in staking starter Matt Giannini to the lead.
Matthews
and Feliz kept the hot bats going in game two, as each drove in three
runs for the second straight game, as the Scarlet Knights outlasted the
Bearcats, 13-9. Rutgers outscored Cincinnati 6-2 over the final three
innings to come away with the win.
In game three on Sunday,
the Bearcats took the series with a 7-3 win. Casey Gaynor, trying to
work his way back into form, gave up four runs in five innings, as he
fell to 2-5, in suffering the loss. The Bearcats scored all four off
Gaynor in the first inning, before he settled in to a rhythm, finishing
with four scoreless innings.
Seton Hall had an off week, with
no games scheduled. The Pirates, who lost their advantage of games in
hand over the week, slid to fifth place, at 13-8.
Northeast Conference
While
the race for the NEC title is not completely over – Monmouth, with a
two-game lead heading into season-ending series with FDU and LIU,
currently sitting in sixth and seventh place, looks like a pretty good
bet to be the top seed in the NEC championship tournament.
But
if the Hawks, 31-12, can run the table in the conference and against
non-conference foe St. Peter’s, they can finish with a 40-win season,
impressive any way you look at it.
The Hawks’ split with Mount
St. Mary’s however, might have been a preview of what Monmouth with
face in the NEC tournament. MSM roughed up ace Brad Brach, (5-2) for
five runs in six innings in a 9-5 loss. The Hawks bounced back,
winning the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader, 5-2, on Nick
Pulsonetti’s three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. Kyle Breese
improved to 6-1 with 1/3 inning in relief of Ryan Buch.
MSM
bounced back, winning the nightcap, 7-3. On Sunday, Andy Meyers drove
in three, and closer Justin Esposito picked up his second win of the
season, as the Hawks edged MSM, 6-5, in 10 innings.
A
mid-week win over Big Rival Monmouth, however, has to impress the NCAA
seeding committee, who will need to win the NEC to get a spot in the
NCAA tournament.
Wagner solidified its post-season
tournament chances with a four game sweep over Quinnipiac, and
currently are in third place in the NEC standings, three games back of
Monmouth at 13-7 in conference play (22-22 overall.)
Outstanding
pitching carried the day, as the Hawks allowed only one earned run in
each of their four victories. The quartet of Kyle Morrison, Joe
Testa, Matt Watson, and Andy Wells were stellar, with all but Watson
picking up the win. Closer Andrew Huebner picked up three saves during
the series, appearing in all four games, allowing one hit, while
striking out three in 4.1 innings pitched.
Meanwhile,
Quinnipiac’s Brett Tyler (6 IP, 3 runs allowed), Chris Gloor (8.2 IP, 2
runs); and Joe Duffy (7 IP, 3 runs) all had nothing to show for their
efforts. The Bobcats fell to basement of the NEC with a 5-15
conference record after being swept.
LIU beat up FDU on
Friday, 27-9, but lost the last three games of the series, as the
Knights managed to keep their hopes for the post-season alive, while
the Blackbirds hopes took a severe set-back. Senior catcher Danny Etkin
was a one-man wrecking crew for LIU (see above) but FDU’s Brett Lazar
and Zachary Sand were able to provide the Knights with enough offense
to carry them past LIU in the final three games.
Both play
Monmouth in the upcoming weeks, and being three and five games back of
the final post-season spot, need a lot of help to get into the
tournament.
Sacred Heart, left for dead after a dreadful
start, is trying to be the 2008 verion of Wagner, and rise from the
dead to make the NEC tournament. AT 8-12, 2.5 games back of Mount St.
Mary’s for the final spot, the Pioneers will need to win out, and hope
for some help after being swept by second place Central Connecticut
over the weekend.
Atlantic 10
With
six conference games to go in the Atlantic 10, Fordham is sitting in
the middle of a six-team scrum for the final playoff spot, after
dropping the final two games of the weekend to conference leader North
Carolina- Charlotte.
At 10-11, they are tied with Dayton,
one-half game behind St. Bonaventure for sixth place. But with so many
teams in the mix – the Rams – if they want to make the post-season,
need to do one thing – win.
Ace Tom Davis did his part,
tossing seven innings of four-hit baseball, as the Rams routed
UNC-Charlotte, 10-0, on Friday. Danny Leach and Bobby DiNardo each had
three RBI in the win, as DiNardo had the big hit in a seven-run third
inning.
UNC- Charlotte bounced back with 7-1 and 10-2 victories, leaving Fordham with a formidable task down the stretch.
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
Manhattan
sits a game behind Canisius in the MAAC, and the Jaspers have some work
left to do. With series against St. Peter’s and Fairfield, last year’s
surprise team and this year’s, the Jaspers have to show up with their
best game ready.
Fairfield, in third place, three out of
first and two behind Manhattan, has a brutal stretch drive, playing
Canisius and Manhattan, in an early start to the post-season, perhaps.
A split of those six games puts the Stags safely in the playoffs. A
sweep gives them the conference, perhaps. Get swept, and fifth place
Siena, a pre-season co-favorite, who sits only a game behind, a
half-game behind fourth place Rider, could jump over them.
The
best thing about the Stags 1-3 week was that it was all
out-of-conference, losing two of three to LeMoyne and a single game at
Stony Brook.
Manhattan meanwhile, swept three from a
struggling Marist team that most likely watched its hopes for
post-season go down in flames. Outstanding pitching from Tom Costigan
(6.2 IP 2 runs) and Tom Moran (4.1 of 1 hit relief) may have been
overshadowed by Josh Rickard’s performance (10 IP 2 Runs) had it not
been for a failure in the Red Foxes bullpen that allowed the Jaspers a
back-breaking 6-2 win.
Mike Gazzola fired a seven-inning
shutout in the game two of the series, while the Jaspers once again
outlasted the Red Foxes in the finale, winning 8-2 in 13 innings. Tom
Penergast, five innings of shutout relief, picked up the win, after
Kevin Nieto was hit with a pitch to force in a run, and Chad Salem
busted the game open a batter later with a bases clearing double.
Rider
had the chance to solidify its post-season spot, and eliminate a
contender, but Siena swept the Broncs in Lawrenceville. With only one
MAAC series left, Rider may need some help to get in the post-season,
and face a difficult LeMoyne team in a weekend series, a team that has
enjoyed wreaking havoc on its former conference mates. The Dolphins
are 11-9 against MAAC opponents this season.
America East
Stony
Brook lead the America East with an 11-5 conference record, and had the
week off from conference duty, facing Patriot League contender
Lafayette in a four-game series, dropping three of four. The schedule
has them facing third place Maryland-Baltimore County next weekend
before ending the season with current cellar dweller Albany.
Patriot League / Independents
Both
service academies tuned up for the upcoming Patriot League playoffs
with games against the local independents, as Army swept a pair from NJ
Tech. Drew Clothier and Ben Koenigsfeld combined on a 9-0 shutout in
game one, and cruised to a 13-4 win in the second game. Cole White
tied the Army career mark by slugging two home runs, giving him six on
the season and 26 for his career.
NY Tech proved a tougher
foe for Navy, “splitting” a three-game set. Darkness set in, ending
Friday’s contest as a 9-9 tie after 10 innings. Andrew Guarassi
scattered 10 hits over seven innings to pick up a seven-inning complete
game, 4-2 win in the opener on Sunday, while Eric Johnson was tagged
with a hard-luck 2-0 loss in the nightcap.
Division II
Felician
reached the CACC Tournament for the third consecutive season and the
seventh time in the nine-year history of the program. The Golden
Falcons are 4-1 in extra innings and 9-5 in one-run games in 2008. On
Apr. 26 (G2), Apr. 30 and May 1, Felician won three consecutive games
by one run for the first time in team history.
In his win over
Dominican on Thursday, senior P Nick Riker broke teammate Scott VanEs’s
school record for strikeouts in a season, currently with 64. VanEs had
60 last year. On Sunday, while earning the win in relief as his team
clinched a playoff berth by defeating Wilmington, VanEs became the
first Felician pitcher to ever record 200 career strikeouts (currently
203).
Junior CF Vinnie DiBenedetti is hitting .559 with six
triples and 12 RBI during his current 10-game hitting streak. Sophomore
C Marcos Torres is batting .511 with 15 RBI in his last 11 games.
Caldwell
and Dominican, two other Gotham Area teams, will also be in the CACC
Tournament, as Caldwell is in first and Dominican in third place in the
league.
Pace, ranked #3 in the latest NCAA Northeast Regional
rankings, split a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader with the Yellow
Jackets of American International on Sunday , taking the opener 9-4,
but fell in the nightcap 6-4. The Setters ended the regular season at
30-21 overall and 18-12 in the NE-10, while the Yellow Jackets end
their season at 11-30 and 9-21 in conference play.
New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament
Kean
won its first NJAC Tournament title since 2002, breaking The College of
New Jersey’s three-year run with an impressive 12-4 victory over
Montclair State. Kean was 4-0 in the double elimination tournament,
while MSU advanced through the loser’s bracket after dropping their
opening game of the tournament to William Paterson University.
TCNJ’s
streak of three-straight titles ended thanks to losses at the hands of
Rowan University and Kean. Rowan finished third in the tournament,
losing to MSU in the elimination game. Wiilliam Paterson (1-2) was
fourth, followed by TCNJ (0-2) and Stockton (0-2)
Now the
waiting game begins, particularly for TCNJ, which was nationally ranked
as high as 6th during the season, to see where they will be sent. Kean
is expected to be the #1 seed in the regional to be held at Newark’s
Bears and Eagles Stadium.
Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Tournament
Centenary
was defeated in the final of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference
baseball tournament, 14-1 to Gwynedd Mercy on Sunday. The Cyclones
advanced to the final by defeating Alvernia, the host school, 14-4 on
Saturday evening.
Gotham Baseball "BEAST of the Week": Danny Etkin (LIU) - 
Gotham Pitcher of the Week: Andrew Huebner (Wagner) - 
