 Welcome to the Pennant Chase, Gotham College style. As we head into
May, races are getting hot and heavy, and in the NJAC, it should be a
wild and wooly ride as the season ends with two national powers, Kean
and The College of New Jersey, battling over the final weekend.
But before we get to that, let's find out who is the "Beast of the Week" Presented by Mattingly Baseball.
 Mattingly Baseball "Beast of the Week": Vin Avella - Avella slugged two home runs, including a grand slam, and drove in nine runs as Wagner went 2-3 over the week. The slugging third baseman had seven RBI in a 13-4 win on Saturday, and went 7-for-14 with four runs scored during the week.
 Pitcher of the Week: Cole White (Army) - The reigning Patriot League Player of the Year got off to a slow start on the mound, as the multi-positional star injured his non-pitching shoulder in a baserunning mishap early in the season. But his second consecutive strong outing, a seven-inning shutout over Lehigh, has served notice that the All Patriot League pitcher has returned. White allowed just six singles and did not walk a batter in the win.
Team of the Week: Montclair State - We have a new leader in the NJAC, and head coach Norm Schoenig picked up a milestone win as the Red Hawks surge to the top of what might be Gotham’s wildest race of the season.
Montclair State, the winners of five straight, swept Richard Stockton
on Saturday, winning a pair of one-run games, 6-5, 9-8. Head coach
Norm Schoenig had a milestone week, as the winningest coach in MSU
history picked up his 600th career victory in 21 seasons during
Friday’s 8-7 victory. The day before the Red Hawks played in the
highest scoring game in their history, a 26-16 victory over New Jersey
City University.
CONFERENCE REPORTS SPONSORED BY
New Jersey Athletic Conference
A new leader, a fall from first to fifth, and fierce battle for the final playoff spot. Welcome to the New Jersey Athletic Conference, as deep and talented as ever, with a week to go in the 2008 season.
William Paterson went from 9-2 and first place to 9-6 in fifth in a week, dropping a 13-12 decision Rutgers-Newark to start the week, followed by another one-run loss, 8-7, to Montclair State.. A doubleheader loss to The College of New Jersey, 14-4, 6-4, finished the tailspin for the Pioneers. WPU has suddenly found themselves part of a three-team battle for the final two spots, after being atop the conference just a week earlier.
Montclair State finds itself atop the conference, tied with Kean and TCNJ with 11 wins, but having one less loss, and the winners of four straight.
Rowan, which swept Rutgers-Newark and is the winner of seven straight ( the current high in conference) is now in fourth place, one game back of the trio at the top, one game ahead of WPU.
TCNJ started the week with a pair of tough losses, losing to Rowan 9-5 in 10 innings, and dropping a 10-9 decision to sixth place Richard Stockton. Bob Buskett won his fifth for the Lions in the nightcap over WPU, despite a three-run rally in the ninth for the Pioneers. Mike Oliver also picked up his fifth victory in the opener, as both pitchers went eight innings, and each allowed four runs.
Kean, also winners of five straight, won three in-conference during the week. Cellar-dweller Rutgers-Camden threw a scare into the Cougars in the nightcap Sunday, losing 3-2, after dropping the opener 8-1. Kean cruised to a 19-4 victory over a struggling New Jersey City squad.
Rutgers-Newark sits in seventh place, one game out of a spot in the post-season tournament, battling Richard Stockton for the final spot as only a collapse by WPU would keep them out of post-season.
Both RSU and the Scarlet Raiders dropped their last two games of the week, and RUN heads into the final week with games against ninth place New Jersey City University (in Newark) on Thursday, a trip to Kean on Friday, and a doubleheader, at home, against eight place Ramapo on Saturday.
The Scarlet Raiders have ridden the hot bats of a pair of freshman, second baseman Matt Connors (.378) and shortstop Patrick Reitmayer (.363) throughout the season. The duo has been named NJAC Freshman of the Week in seven of nine weeks during the season.
Patriot League
Army sits in a tie for first, and Cole White picked up his second straight Patriot League Pitcher of the Week award after winning three of four games with Lehigh over the weekend. The Black Knights need one win against Lafayette at West Point next weekend to make post-season, with Lafayette, sitting in fifth place trying to catch Navy for the final spot. Three of four for Army would assure them opening the Patriot League playoffs at home.
The Freshmen dominated Black Knights have been surging, winning eight of 10, behind the return to dominance of White, who was hampered early in the year with a shoulder injury, and the stellar play of freshmen first basemen Kevin McKague (.324, 3, 36), shortstop Clint Moore (.336, 4, 29) and senior catcher Chris Simmons (.333 4, 28). McKague (1-0, 3.60 in 9 appearances) has also become a valued member of the pitching staff.
Atlantic 10
Fordham has a lot of work to do if they want to see post-season in 2008. The Rams are a disappointing 6-9 in Atlantic 10 play, and will have to leapfrog three teams to qualify in the top six in the league. Twelve A-10 conference games remain on the schedule, but include series with conference leader UNC- Charlotte (11-4, 29-9 overall) and third place (10-5, 16-20) Xavier, both at home. Road series with Massachusetts (5-10, 12-17) and co-leader Temple will also provide a challenge.
A disappointing weekend saw the Rams drop the final two games of the weekend to LaSalle, after Tom Davis’ outstanding performance gave the Rams a 7-2 victory on Friday.
Big East
Like last season, two of the top teams in the Big East are Gotham’s, but the New Jersey component of the combination has changed, as Seton Hall has been the Big East’s biggest surprise, while Rutgers has struggled on the mound and with injuries. Still the Scarlet Knights, at the end of the weekend, would qualify for post-season, sitting in eight place with a 6-9 record.
A 3-1 week, including winning two of three at Pittsburgh in Big East play, leaves St. John’s at 28-9 overall, 11-4 in the Big East, and in second place, one game behind Notre Dame and a tied with Cincinnati. The Red Storm travel to South Bend with first place on the line this weekend, with Saturday’s game being televised on ESPNU.
Senior George Brown continued his streak as the hottest pitcher in Gotham, improving 8-0 in a 7-4 victory on Saturday, allowing two runs in seven innings. In a wild 11-8 win on Sunday, closer Colin Lynch picked up his 12 save of the season, pitching the final 2/3rds of an inning.
Rutgers (6-9, 14-21) , meanwhile, needed a 5-4, 10 inning victory on Sunday to avoid being swept by South Florida at home. The Scarlet Knights, without Casey Gaynor and Steve Holt in the rotation, got a big effort from Jason Downey on Sunday, who allowed four runs in eight innings. Kevin Lillis (3-1) picked up the victory with two innings of shutout relief.
Seton Hall (12-6, 25-14) took two of three on the road at Connecticut behind the stellar pitching of Corey Young and the timely hitting of Dan Lopez, Greg Miller and Chris Affinito. Young improved to 6-2 on Saturday, limiting the Huskies to three runs in seven innings, while Affinito and Miller swung potent bats in the Pirates 9-5 win on Friday, each collecting four hits.
Ivy
Columbia all but wrapped up the Gerhig Division of the Ivy Group, taking three of four from Cornell. Joe Scarlata’s complete game 7-2 victory was iced away with a four run seventh inning, courtesy of centerfielder Nick Cox’s grand slam. The nightcap saw the Lions win, 8-6, as Cox picked up three more hits, and Geoff Whittaker picked up his fifth victory of the season.
Sunday saw the Lions split, dropping the opener, 11-7, as the Big Red roughed up the Lions bullpen in a seven-run sixth inning. Cox has two more hits, while Henry Perkins drove in four. Bill Purdy evened his record at 3-3, with a 6-2 victory in the nightcap.
Princeton’s challenge for the top spot most likely ended as the Tigers split with Pennsylvania, sweeping a doubleheader Saturday, getting swept on Sunday. The Tigers would need to sweep Cornell over the weekend, while Penn sweeps Columbia to win the Gerhig Division.
The weekend got off on a happy note, as a Brad Gemberling’s three-hit shutout and Adrian Turham’s home run lifted the Tigers to a 1-0 victory. In the nightcap, Christian Staehley continued to round back into form of his sophomore year, as he pitched a complete game, seven hitter as the Tigers won, 6-2. Staehely, struck out eight.
But the weekend turned south quickly, as Princeton dropped Sunday’s doubleheader, 10-7 and 5-4. The loss in the nightcap was particularly tough, with the tying run on third and one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers were unable to push across the final run.
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
A battle between Manhattan (9-3, 18-15) and Canisius (9-3, 29-6) looks to head into the final weekend of the season. MAAC Pitcher of the Week Tom Costigan led the Jaspers to a sweep over Iona (1-14, 1-32), allowing the Gaels just five hits in a 6-0 shutout in the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader. The nightcap was another shutout, as Brian Pendergast tossed a seven-inning shutout, 4-0.
Joe Lorenzo’s run-scoring single in the third inning broke the Gaels scoreless streak at 19 innings against Manhattan, but the Jaspers still prevailed, 4-1, as Dan Forman picked up his fifth win in eight decisions.
Six teams are within two-and-a-half games of each other, bunched for the final two playoff spots in a race that will go right to the end of the season. Marist (5-7, 14-19) sits in eighth, while Rider (9-6, 20-15) sits in third, with Fairfield (9-6, 11-24), St. Peter’s (6-6, 16-18), Siena (7-8, 14-23), and Niagara (5-7, 15-19) sitting in between.
The Stags and Broncs battled over the weekend, with Rider winning two of three on the road. Both teams brought their bats, as Rider won the opening two games, 17-9 and 12-2, with Fairfield salvaging a 12-11 decision in 12 innings on Sunday. Rider’s James Hayes was the hitting star on Saturday, driving in four runs, and the losing pitcher on Sunday, as Fairfield’s Bill Rafferty RBI single in the bottom of the 12th gave the Rider closer his first loss of the season.
St. Peter’s lost two of three at Niagara over the weekend, dropping out of the final playoff spot in the process.
Marist played out-of-conference against LeMoyne over the weekend, and were on the losing end of three games. An early-week win over Army, 7-1, saved the week from being a washout for the Red Foxes.
Northeast Conference
As predicted, Monmouth is the class of the league this year, running up an impressive 11-1 conference record, and sit 23-9 overall. A perfect 5-0 week included a four-game sweep of Quinnipiac (3-9, 8-24) at home, winning with offense (18-5, 10-3, 7-1) and pitching (4-1).
On the season, the Hawks are hitting .313 as a team, and limiting to a .245 batting average, as All Gotham pitching selections Brad Brach (4-1, 2.44) and Ryan Buch (5-1, 3.52) have been joined in the rotation by Matt Marc-Aurele (2-2, 2.72) and Brett Brach (3-1, 3.69, 2 saves). Closer Justin Esposito (1-1, 2.70) has added seven saves.
Ryan Terry powered Monmouth’s offense during the Hawks’ 5-0 week, by batting .562 (9-for-16) with eight runs scored and three RBI, and was named the NEC Rookie of the Week for his efforts.
FDU’s John Meadus became the first Knight of the season to garner an NEC award, gathering Pitcher of the Week after his two-hit, complete game shutout win over Wagner, 4-0, on Sunday. The win, which improved Meadus record, earned the Knights (4-7, 9-26) a split in their four-game weekend series with the Seahawks.
Wagner (7-5, 15-18) sit in third place in the NEC, and come off a 2-3 week which saw them drop a non-conference tilt to Seton Hall, 3-2, in 10 innings. Joe Testa improved to 4-4 with a complete game, two-hitter in the seven inning opener on Saturday, a 2-1 win. The Seahawks scored two in the top of the seventh, with Damien Csakai stealing home during a failed pick off attempt for the winning run.
Vin Avella had three hits and seven RBI in the nightcap, as the Seahawks cruised to a 13-4 victory. Two of Avella’s hit were home runs, a three-run shot in the fourth, and a grand slam in the seventh.
The bottom half of the NEC is Gotham based, as Sacred Heart (4-8, 6-29), LIU (3-9, 11-24) and Quinnipiac (3-9, 8-24) trail FDU in the second division.
Other
Hofstra has been out of the Colonial race since the second week of the season, as The Pride started out with 10 straight conference losses before defeating Delaware. Over the weekend, Hofstra took two of three at home from Old Dominion, improving to 3-18 in conference play, 14-28 overall.
David Cole had four RBI in Hofstra’s win on Saturday, while Bobby Neelan limited the Monarchs to two hits, and three runs, in 6.2 innings in 6-4 win.
Independents NY Tech (11-19) and NJ Tech (3-32) were busy during the week, with the Bears playing seven games, winning three, while the Highlanders picked up their first shutout win of the season. Bobby Wyrwa picked up his first win of the season with a neat two-hitter, an 8-0 win over Hartford.
Andrew Guarassi also threw a two-hitter, as NY Tech defeated Florida Atlantic, 2-0, to split a wild four-game series. After taking the opener, 10-7, the Bears lost the middle two games of the series, 22-7, 16-2. They split a series with Siena earlier in the week, and defeated LIU-Brooklyn, 15-4 on Monday.
Stony Brook took three of four from Vermont, and sits in a tie for first in the America East. The Seawolves, at 8-4, are tied with Hartford, 6-2, who has four games in hand. Both teams look like solid bets to make the post-season tournament.
The game of the series was the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader as Gary Novakwski picked up his fourth win of the season with a complete game, five-hitter, and shortstop Chad Marshall drove in the winning run in the top of the seventh.
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