Another week of college baseball in the books. Unlike previous years, the Division-I programs have really gotten off to strong starts and dominate four of the top five spots on the list. St. John’s maintains their strangle hold on the top spot–as they have for the past year.
Reminder, the list does not factor in strength of schedule, simply a ranking based on level of performance against their given opponents. There’s 14 colleges in our coverage area. Here’s how the top-10 stack up.
- St. John’s (8-1, Stock EVEN)
For a couple days, it appeared the only thing that could stop them was the weather. They traveled to Sacramento to take on UC Davis and the first two games were cancelled due to rain. They played a double header today and won the first game 8-0 to improve to 8-0. Sean Mooney is making the game of baseball look incredibly easy. The reigning Big East Pitcher of the Year improved to 3-0 on the season with five shutout innings with six strikeouts. Kevin Magee fired the next three shutout innings. They were led by John Valente‘s and Jamie Galazin‘s three hits each. They had their eight-game win streak end finally with a 10-6 loss. They are still sitting pretty at 8-1 and entered the week with the No. 1 ERA in the nation.
This week they will host LIU Brooklyn on Tuesday, travel to Fairleigh-Dickinson on Wednesday and then travel to take on Kansas for a three-game set this weekend.
2. Hofstra (Record: 5-2, Stock UP)
Since losing their first two games of the season at Lamar, they have rattled off five consecutive wins and look like a premier team. They entered the week with the No. 2 ERA in the nation behind St. John’s and allowed only seven runs in the three-game set. John Rooney continued his unbelievable start to the season with eight shutout innings on Sunday, with a career-high 13 strikeouts. Matt Weissheier three a gem in Game 2 and they erased a 6-4 deficit in the fifth inning today thanks to HRs by Vinnie Costello and Vito Friscia. Seamus Brazill was making his first start since his historic no-hitter last weekend, and it did not go as well this week as he allowed five runs (3 ER) over four innings. Chris Weiss stepped up and fired three shutout innings with eight strikeouts to record the save. They should feel very good about themselves. They are holding opposing batters to a .187 AVG. This upcoming weekend they will head to Maryland to play in UMBC’s tournament they will play Mount St. Mary’s and UMBC.
3. Stony Brook (Record: 6-4, Stock EVEN)
I feel wrong to punish them for losing to the No. 1 ranked team and reigning national champs but what’s fair is fair. They fall one spot this week after being held to six runs over a weekend series. They did hold a 5-3 lead on Friday night into the fifth inning, giving a little scare to the champs but then they began to flex their muscle and wound up putting up nine runs in the last four innings. To be fair, they did put up a couple runs against the potential No. 1 overall pick in the country in Brady Singer.
The strength of the team so far has certainly been Michael Wilson (.356 AVG) and the combination of Brian Herrmann and Bret Clarke in the rotation. Aaron Pinto has also been lights-out in the bullpen.
They will look to right the ship this week when they host Manhattan on Tuesday and Wagner this weekend. They will be kicking off a 12-game homestead and they can really bank some wins.
4. LIU Post (Record: 6-5, Stock UP)
They’ve won three consecutive games including a double header sweep today over Felician College. They received great outings from both James Varela and Noah Lorenzo today, with saves from Julien Arcos and Joe Valentino. I think they miss Jake DeCarli without a doubt, but the duo of Varela and Lorenzo appear ready to accept the task of anchoring the rotation. They have so much depth in the pitching staff that I think the numbers will improve substantially through out the season as the arms emerge into roles. Right now, the 5.99 is obviously inflated due to the Franklin Pierce game. Offensively, the reigning Axcess Baseball MVP Rob Andreoli has been a hitting machine of late. After another big weekend, he’s up to 17 hits in 35 at bats (.486 AVG). Not far behind is Joe Spitaleri (.357 AVG) and Jimmy Mendyk (.350 AVG). I think they have a dynamic offense and they can definitely compete right there with St. Thomas Aquinas in the ECC. They will face Pace in Pleasantville on Thursday, before traveling south to Cary, NC where I will get a good look at them all weekend.
5. Fordham (Record: 5-4-1, Stock EVEN)
They defeated James Madison two of three games this weekend down in Virginia. Ben Greenberg continued his hot start to the season with six strong innings on Friday night. He has started the season with 14.0 shutout innings and two victories. Reiss Knehr was not quite as dominant as him on Saturday but he did record the win with seven strikeouts over six innings. Offensively, freshman Nick Labella has led the attack, he’s leading the team in hitting at .324 with a .441 SLG.
They will make the short trip Wednesday to face LIU Brooklyn before facing Coppin State this weekend in Maryland.
6. Adelphi (Record: 1-1-1, Stock UP)
It’s no small task to stand toe-to-toe with Franklin Pierce. They are one of the powerhouse Div-II programs in the nation. They outlasted them in 10 innings on Saturday afternoon on a walk-off hit. Ed Baram was filthy, Max Steele showed what he’s made of in his three shutout innings of relief in his collegiate debut. He really seems like a steal for them, no pun intended. After losing the middle game of the series, they tied 2-2 today before the game was called due to darkness. Offensively, I think they need a couple more players to step up. Tyler Becker had a big RBI hit the other day, if he can contribute offensively that would go a long way. Not having Daniel Alfonzo for this season puts a damper on their lineup. He would’ve been a great addition along with Brett Malm, Steven Withers and Brandon Morse. Thomas Colombo–who had the walk-off hit–could be a real X-Factor for them as well. Another thing that stood out to me was just how great Kory Cassara can be at controlling the running game. He made such a strong throw to second that the runner stopped before attempting a slide. Very rare you see that.
7. St. Joseph’s (Record: 1-1, Stock EVEN)
Here’s where it gets very difficult to differentiate the teams. The Div-III teams opened up this week and it’s so early that I will rank them based on how I predict the season to play out. The Golden Eagles have a ton of pitching depth and I think they showed today that they have four highly-capable starting pitchers with Nick Clemente, P.J. Martino, Anthony Papa and Joseph Murphy. They have a ton of depth offensively and they are probably the most dangerous lineup in the conference this season. Paul Britt and Lou Doria are a dynamic duo but Tyler Crafa, Dylan Piscitelli, Daniel Campanelli, Anthony Raucci, Tyler Sanderson, Matthew Burnett and Tyler Costa can all swing it as well.
8. Maritime (Record: 3-1, Stock EVEN)
They bounced back from last week’s loss to John Jay with a DH sweep of Southern Vermont, allowing only two runs. They have a great offense as well. Aaron Schiavoni is off to a great start, along with Connor Alwan, Matt Costleigh, Phil Russo and Stephen Semler. They’ve put together a 1.25 staff ERA thanks to two great starts apiece from Anthony D’Ancona and Travis Bruinsma accounting for 20 of their 28 innings.
9. Farmingdale (Record: 2-0, Stock UP)
10. Old Westbury (Record: 2-0-1, Stock UP)
In my mind, these teams are very similar. They are both coming off years that were not up to their expectations. They both graduated key pieces and are young but have the potential to mesh together at the right time. In the case of Old Westbury, they opened the season off with an upset over powerhouse Kean University. Adam Heidenfelder has won both of their games and he looks like he is comfortable and found his command. Offensively, they have hit .326 over their first three games. They will have only one game this week and it will be in Hoboken against Stevens Tech. Farmingdale dominated today but New Rochelle is a program that is really in the midst of a rebuilding stage and is not ready to compete with established programs. Farmingdale will host William Paterson this Wednesday and Staten Island this weekend, which should be very good match ups. I give them the slight nod of OW right now because they have more depth in the pitching staff.
