Charleston's Evan Sisk threw a complete-game shutout at Kansas State.
Baseball Weekly Honors - March 19
Rob Washburn
CAA BASEBALL WEEKLY REPORT - MARCH 19 (PDF format)
CAA BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Garrett Stonehouse, Elon
So., IF/OF, Westport, Conn./Avon Old Farms
Stonehouse batted .583 (7-for-12) with three doubles, a homer, six runs scored and nine RBI’s in Elon’s three-game weekend sweep of Rider. The sophomore went a career-best 5-for-6 with two doubles, a homer, five RBI’s and four runs scored in Saturday’s victory over the Broncs and followed by going 2-for-4 and driving in three on Sunday. Stonehouse was the first Elon player since 2016 to record at least five hits in a game and raised his season batting average by .123.
CAA BASEBALL PITCHER OF THE WEEK:
Evan Sisk, Charleston
Jr., LHP, Chester, S.C./Lewisville
Sisk threw a complete-game, five-hit shutout as Charleston blanked Big 12 foe Kansas State, 8-0, in the series opener last Friday. The junior left-hander gave up just one extra-base hit, allowed only two base runners to get into scoring position and induced three double plays. He struck out four and walked two over 9.0 innings and improved to 4-1 with a 2.32 ERA for the season.
CAA BASEBALL ROOKIE OF THE WEEK:
Noah Liles, UNCW
Fr., OF, Angier, N.C./West Johnston
Liles batted .667 (8-for-12) with three RBI’s and four runs scored in UNCW’s three-game weekend sweep of Quinnipiac. The freshman outfielder went a career-best 4-for-6, drove in two and scored twice in Friday’s opener vs. the Bobcats and was 3-for-5 with an RBI and run scored in Sunday’s finale. Liles had just two hits all season before his breakout performance.
DIAMOND NOTES:
Charleston (15-6) - The Cougars lost two one-run games to Quinnipiac but won two-of-three at Big 12 foe Kansas State over the weekend. Charleston posted back-to-back shutouts vs. the Wildcats. Evan Sisk threw a complete-game, five-hitter with four strikeouts in an 8-0 win on Friday. Griffin McLarty (7.0 IP, 6 H) and Nathan Ocker (2.0 IP, 1 H) combined for the 6-0 triumph on Saturday. Sisk is now 4-1 with a 2.32 ERA, while McLarty is 4-0 with a 0.59 ERA. CofC has six shutouts this season, which is one shy of the school season record. Offensively, Logan McRae was 3-for-3 with a double and a two-run homer on Saturday at KSU, while Danny Wondrack was 4-for-7 with three runs and three RBI’s in the two victories over KSU. Justin Baker tossed 5.0 scoreless innings with six strikeouts out of the bullpen against Quinnipiac last Wednesday.
Delaware (10-8) - The Blue Hens picked up a 7-6 walk-off win over Maryland last Tuesday but dropped three-of-four to Bryant over the weekend. Calvin Scott batted .316 for the week, including the walk-off homer vs. the Terps. He drove in a run in four of UD’s five games. Kevin Mohollen hit .444 (8-18) with four runs scored and four RBI’s from the leadoff spot last week. Zach Miller recorded a pair of multi-hit games last week. Kyle Hinton held Bryant to four hits and one earned run over 6.0 innings and struck out 10 in Saturday’s 7-3 win. He’s 2-1 with a 1.53 ERA for the season and has fanned 36 over 29.1 innings. Clay Conaway allowed just one hit over 3.0 shutout innings from the bullpen against Bryant on Sunday.
Elon (11-9) - The Phoenix went 3-1 last week, losing 2-1 at #17 East Carolina before sweeping a 3-game home series from Rider by the combined score of 47-7. Garrett Stonehouse batted .583 (7-12) with three doubles, a homer and nine RBI’s vs. Rider. Joe Satterfield hit .500 (6-12) and drove in nine vs. Rider, while Zach Evers batted .667 (8-12) and scored six times from the leadoff spot. Freshman Matt Oldham had a hit in all four games and batted .313 for the week. Kyle Brnovich turned in another dominant effort on Friday, giving up just one earned run on four hits over 7.0 innings while striking out 13. He’s 3-0 with a 1.34 ERA and has fanned a league-best 52 in 33.2 innings. George Kirby threw 6.0 shutout innings vs. Rider and struck out five to increase his season strikeout total to 42. Ryan Conroy didn’t give up an earned run in 5.2 innings at ECU.
Hofstra (9-4) - The Pride rallied from a 5-0 deficit to beat Albany 9-8 in 10 innings in the first game of their 3-game set, but dropped the final two. Vito Friscia batted .556 (5-for-9) with four RBI’s in the series, including a game-winning solo homer in the 10th in the opener. Friscia is riding an 8-game hitting streak and leads the CAA with a .438 batting average. Austin Gauthier was 3-for-6 with three RBI’s in the win and drove in five in the series. Daniel Page reached base in seven straight plate appearances. The Pride ran their winning streak to nine - the longest since 2013 - before dropping the second game of the DH on Saturday. John Rooney fanned 10 over 6.0 innings in the opener to become Hofstra’s career strikeouts leader with 199.
James Madison (12-8) - The Dukes split four one-run games last week, falling 3-2 at Virginia before winning two-of-three vs. UMass Lowell over the weekend. Freshman Josh Jones hit .385 (5-13) for the week, including a game-winning RBI double in the 9th on Friday vs. UML. Jones is batting a team-best .356 on the year. Fox Semones drove in the game-winning runs on Saturday and finished 2-for-3 with three RBI’s. Adam Sisk was 3-for-4 with a double, homer and five RBI’s on Sunday. He leads JMU with 17 RBI’s for the year. Kevin Kelly limited UVA to just one run on five hits in 7.0 innings. Reliever Brett Ayer didn’t allow a hit and struck out seven over the final 3.0 innings to pick up his first win against UML on Friday. Shelton Perkins also threw 3.0 shutout innings out of the pen on Saturday to earn his first victory.
UNCW (14-6) - The Seahawks rebounded from a pair of mid-week losses to Ohio State by sweeping a three-game series from Quinnipiac. UNCW batted .377 as a team vs. QU. Ryan Jeffers batted .435 (10-22) with five doubles, a homer, six runs scored and six RBI’s last week and increased his hitting streak to eight games. He leads the CAA in doubles (12), homers (6) and runs (22) and is second in RBI’s (20). Doug Angeli and Noah Liles both went 4-for-6 and combined for five RBI’s in Friday’s win over QU and Liles batted .667 (8-12) for the weekend. Alex Royalty scattered four hits over 7.0 shutout innings on Friday to up his record to 3-1 with a 2.08 ERA. He hasn’t allowed a run in his last 19 innings at Brooks Field and became the 16th player in UNCW history with 20 career victories. UNCW’s bullpen is now 10-0 with seven saves this season.
Northeastern (9-5) - The Huskies were unable to play last week due to bad weather and are scheduled to play their home opener on Monday afternoon against Hartford. NU travels to ACC foe Boston College on Tuesday before a four-game weekend series at nationally ranked Texas Tech. The Huskies lead the CAA with a .284 team batting average. Charlie McConnell (.393), Max Burt (.386) and Jake Farrell (.382) are all ranked in the top five in the CAA in batting. McConnell is also among league leaders with 10 stolen bases in 14 games, while Farrell has 14 RBI’s in 14 games. On the mound, Sean Mellen is 4-0 with a 1.33 ERA and has recorded 36 strikeouts with only 10 walks in 27.0 innings.
Towson (3-15) - The Tigers opened last week with a 12-2 victory at Delaware before falling 6-4 to UMBC and losing three weekend games to Marist. Richard Miller had a huge outing at DSU, going 4-for-5 with a triple, homer and five RBI’s. Mark Grunberg went 3-for-5 against UMBC and was 2-for-4 in the finale vs. Marist. Towson got solid efforts from its starting pitchers in the Marist series. Gavin Weyman allowed two earned runs and struck out eight over 6.0 innings on Friday, David Marriggi gave up three earned runs and fanned nine in 6.1 innings on Saturday and Michael Adams held Marist to two runs and struck out eight over 7.0 frames on Sunday.
William & Mary (8-13) - The Tribe had a 3-1 week, topping Lehigh, 12-2, before taking two-of-three from East Tennessee. W&M’s pitching staff allowed just seven runs over the four games. Five hurlers combined on a 4-hit shutout in Friday’s 1-0 triumph over ETSU. Jamie Sara picked up two wins out of the bullpen against the Bucs, throwing 3.0 shutout frames with four strikeouts on Friday and another shutout inning on Sunday. Freshman Jacob Haney limited ETSU to five hits and one run over a season-high 7.0 innings on Sunday and struck out five. Bodie Sheehan didn’t get a decision on Saturday after giving up two runs and striking out six over 7.2 innings. He’s 1-1 with a 1.73 ERA for the season. Colin Lipke was 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI’s in the Lehigh win and he batted .333 for the week.
FOUR TEAMS IN TOP 85 OF NCAA RPI: Four CAA teams are ranked in the top 85 of the latest NCAA baseball RPI through games of March 18. Northeastern leads the way at #2, trailing only Auburn in the rankings. Charleston is ranked #43, UNCW jumped to #76 and James Madison is #85.
CAA PLAY GETS UNDERWAY: Conference play in the CAA gets underway on Friday. UNCW hosts Hofstra, Charleston entertains William & Mary, Elon travels to James Madison and Delaware visits Towson.