CAA BASEBALL WEEKLY REPORT - APRIL 7
CAA BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Anthony Sarno, Hofstra
Sr., Util., Avenel, N.J./Colonia
Sarno batted .524 (11-21) with a double, four homers, six runs scored and 13 RBI as Hofstra went 3-2 last week. The senior hit safely in all five games, including a 4-for-5 effort with three HR’s and five RBI as Hofstra beat Delaware 10-1 for its first CAA win.
CAA BASEBALL Co-PITCHER OF THE WEEK:
Brad Holt, UNC Wilmington
Jr., RHP, Albemarle, N.C./Albemarle
Holt became the first UNCW pitcher since 1992 to toss a 1-hitter in the Seahawks’ 11-1 victory at Northeastern on Saturday. The junior allowed only a solo homer over seven innings and struck out seven. Holt improved to 5-1 on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.70.
CAA BASEBALL Co-PITCHER OF THE WEEK:
Josh Squatrito, Towson
Jr., RHP, Willow Street, Pa./Penn Manor
Squatrito took over the closer’s role for the first time and saved all three Towson wins last week. The junior appeared in four games and allowed just one hit and an earned run in 5.2 innings. He struck out eight of the 17 batters he faced and held foes to a .059 average.
CAA BASEBALL ROOKIE OF THE WEEK:
Matt Harden, Delaware
Fr., 3B, Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s
After spending most of the season as a reliever, Harden batted .385 (5-13) with five runs scored and two RBI in four starts at third base. The freshman is currently riding a five-game hitting streak, which is the longest active streak on the team.
DIAMOND NOTES:
UNCW Remains In National Polls: UNC Wilmington is ranked #22 this week by Baseball America and #27 by Collegiate Baseball. The Seahawks, who appeared in the national polls for the first time in school history last week, saw their nation’s best 21-game winning streak come to an end last Saturday at Northeastern, but are 22-1-1 since Feb. 29.
CAA In The RPI: Five CAA baseball teams are ranked in the top 100 of the RPI through games of April 6 according to popular college baseball web site boydsworld.com. UNC Wilmington leads the way at #17, followed by James Madison at #60, William & Mary at #72, Georgia State at #85 and Old Dominion at #98. The CAA is ranked #12 as a conference.
DELAWARE (10-18, 5-7 in CAA)
The Blue Hens won two of three from Hofstra over the weekend, capping a 2-2 week. Senior Adam Tsakonas batted .533 (8-15) with two doubles, three homers, six runs scored and nine RBI. In Friday’s 15-6 win over the Pride, he went 5-for-5 with a school-record tying three homers, five runs and eight RBI. Tsakonas already has a career-best 11 homers this season and he’s now 10th on UD’s career homers list with 34. Freshman Matt Harden, who has spent most of the season as a relief pitcher, started four games at third base last week and hit .385 with five runs scored. He’s riding a team-best five-game hitting streak. Pitcher Mike McGuire got the win on Friday to improve to 4-2, scattering six hits over eight innings. The four wins are the most for McGuire since 2005.
GEORGE MASON (13-17, 8-6 in CAA)
The Patriots posted a 1-3 mark in four road games last week, but did manage a 5-4 CAA win over Towson on Sunday. Junior Scott Krieger went 3-for-5 in Sunday’s victory and has 11 homers and a team-high 35 runs scored on the year. Sophomore Justin Bour extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Bour is batting .424 and tops the CAA in homers (12) and RBI (43). Reliever Ryan Brecko picked up his first save on Sunday with three perfect innings out of the pen. Opponents are hitting only .214 against Brecko this season. Mason allowed four runs in the final three frames in a 9-5 loss at Maryland and gave up three in the eighth of a 7-6 setback at TU on Friday. It was just the second time all year that the Patriots lost when leading after seven innings. Mason is 10-7 at home but only 2-8 on the road.
GEORGIA STATE (18-11, 7-7 in CAA)
The Panthers split a doubleheader with William & Mary on Sunday in a series that was twice delayed by rain. State dropped the opener 3-2 but won the nightcap 6-3 when sophomore catcher Marc Mimeault hit a walk-off three-run homer. Mimeault also caught all 16 innings of the twinbill. Designated hitter Derek Simmons batted .375 with a homer and two RBI last week. Senior infielder Jean-Michel Rochon-Salvas, who is batting a team-best .376, enters the week with 239 career hits, which is just four shy of Charlie Pelt’s all-time hits record of 243. Rochon-Salvas already owns the State career mark for runs scored (141). Starting pitchers Robinson Polanco and Will Palmer combined to limit W&M to four earned runs over 13.2 innings on Sunday. Polanco (5-2) is 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA over his last three CAA starts and has fanned 19 in 23.2 innings.
HOFSTRA (11-21, 1-14 in CAA)
The Pride went 3-2 last week and earned their first CAA victory of the year at Delaware (10-1) on Saturday. Senior Anthony Sarno batted .524 (11-21) for the week with a double, four homers, six runs scored and 13 RBI. He was 4-for-5 with three homers, a double and five RBI in the win at UD and also had two hits in three other games. The big week lifted Sarno’s season average from .257 to a team-best .323. Matt Kougasian batted .353 with four doubles, five RBI and six runs scored last week. Sophomore pitcher Rob Kumbatovic threw his third complete game of the season in the win at UD, limiting the Hens to five hits and a run over seven innings. Brody Fontaine turned in a pair of strong relief outings, picking up the win versus Stony Brook with four innings of work before holding UD to just a run on six hits over seven innings on Saturday while fanning six. Ryan Radke allowed four hits over eight frames with seven K’s in a win over St. Peter’s
JAMES MADISON (21-8, 12-3 in CAA)
The Dukes were 2-1 in a rain-shortened week, beating Radford and splitting a doubleheader with Longwood. Head coach Spanky McFarland posted his 500th career victory against RU. JMU reached the 20-win mark in only 27 games, matching the fastest to 20 since 2002. Senior second baseman Joe Lake hit .636 (7-11) for the week with three doubles and six runs scored. He tied a career-high with four hits in the opener versus LU and also scored four times. Sophomore Mike Fabiaschi batted .625 on the week, while junior Brett Sellers hit .583 to raise his CAA-leading batting average to .452. Sophomore pitcher Kyle Hoffman improved to 5-1 after limiting LU to three runs in 7.2 innings on Saturday. Freshman Turner Phelps tossed three no-hit innings in relief versus RU, striking out five of the 10 batters he faced. He has fanned 31 in 23.1 innings. JMU’s 10-2 road record is tied for the second-best in the nation behind only Canisius (12-2).
UNC WILMINGTON (23-5-1, 13-1-1 in CAA)
The Seahawks extended their nation’s best winning streak to 21 by beating Wake Forest 5-1 last Tuesday before having it snapped with a 6-4 loss at Northeastern in the opener of a doubleheader on Saturday. UNCW bounced back with an 11-1 win in the nightcap as junior Brad Holt threw a 1-hitter with seven strikeouts over seven innings. Holt (5-1) gave up just a second-inning homer as he lowered his ERA to 2.70. It was the first 1-hitter by a UNCW pitcher since Heath Altman in 1992. The Seahawks’ pitching staff posted a 2.31 ERA last week and continues to top the CAA with a 4.18 mark for the year. Senior third baseman Nate Hall batted .571 (8-14) last week and is riding a career-long 12-game hitting streak. Hall was 7-for-11 in the NU series with two homers and five RBI. Mark Carver hit a grand slam at NU for his team-leading 10th homer of the year. Freshman Cody Stanley was 2-for-3 with two RBI in the Wake Forest victory.
NORTHEASTERN (11-12-1, 4-7-1 in CAA)
The Huskies fell 8-7 to Boston College in their home opener last Tuesday before going 1-1-1 in a weekend series with first-place UNCW. Junior catcher Frank Pesanello batted .313 (5-16) for the week with four homers and eight RBI. Pesanello, who leads NU with 10 home runs this season, went deep twice versus BC, hit a three-run shot in Saturday’s 6-4 victory over UNCW in the opener and then recorded the Huskies’ only hit with a homer in the nightcap. Shortstop Mike Lyon batted .400 and scored five runs last week and remains second in the CAA with a .427 average. Junior pitcher Jeff Thomson (4-1) threw his league-leading fourth complete of the season in NU’s victory over UNCW that halted the Seahawks’ 21-game win streak. Thomson, who scattered nine hits over nine innings, is 3-0 versus CAA foes with a 4.00 ERA. Reliever Sheldon McDonald allowed just two hits over five scoreless innings in relief as NU and UNCW fought to a 3-3 tie after 11 innings. McDonald lowered his ERA to 2.56 for the season.
OLD DOMINION (15-14, 7-6 in CAA)
The Monarchs dropped home games to in-state foes VMI (7-3) and VCU (8-2) before having the final two games of their series with the Rams rained out. Senior outfielder Jimmy Miles was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI versus VMI and is batting .383. He also swiped three bases versus the Keydets and leads the CAA with 24 steals. Designated hitter David Burns was 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI against VCU. Junior Anthony Shawler is batting .500 in CAA play. Junior pitcher Dan Hudson took the loss versus VCU, but tops the league with 59 strikeouts, including 49 over 36.2 innings in conference action.
TOWSON (14-16, 5-7 in CAA)
The Tigers went 3-2 last week, which included a 7-6 victory at #14 Virginia and a pair of wins in their three-game CAA series with George Mason. The victory over the Cavaliers was Towson’s first over a ranked foe since 2003. Junior Josh Squatrito earned his first career save at UVA by retiring the final three hitters with the tying run on base. He went to save two more games in the Mason series with three shutout innings and fanned eight of the 17 batters he faced last week. Junior Matt Collins batted .318 for the week with two doubles, a triple, a homer and nine RBI. Collins scored the eventual game-winning run at UVA and smacked a game-tying two-run triple in the eighth inning of Friday’s 7-6 victory over Mason before coming across with the winning run. Spencer Patton allowed just five hits and run over seven innings as Towson beat Mason 5-1 on Saturday. The Tigers had a 2.67 team ERA versus Mason with 26 strikeouts over 27 frames. Towson’s bullpen threw 12 shutout innings against the Patriots and earned a win and two saves.
VCU (6-19, 1-8 in CAA)
The Rams saw three of their four games rained out last week, but defeated Old Dominion 8-2 on Friday for their first CAA victory of the season. The win ended a seven-game slide that dated back to mid-March. Senior right-hander Cody Eppley threw his second complete game of the season, allowing only four hits and one earned run over nine innings to even his record at 3-3. Junior third baseman Chris Jackson went 4-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI, while senior Kwan Evans launched a two-run homer. Freshman catcher Eric Curtis came off the bench to replace injured Carlos Rodriguez and was 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI. The victory was VCU’s first on the road this season.
WILLIAM & MARY (20-11, 10-7 in CAA)
The Tribe defeated Liberty 9-7 last Tuesday before splitting a Sunday doubleheader at Georgia State. W&M took the opener, 3-2, but dropped the nightcap 6-3, to end a four-game winning streak. Senior catcher Tim Park went 4-for-7 in the doubleheader at GSU with a homer, three RBI and three runs scored. The effort upped his season average to a team-best .424. Junior Ben Guez batted .417 last week and stole three bases to increase his season total to 10. Junior Mike Sheridan homered twice and drove in four at Liberty. He is hitting .415 on the year with nine homers and 40 RBI. Lefty Pete Vernon upped his record to 4-2 after limiting GSU to two earned runs on four hits over 6.0 innings in the opener. Senior southpaw Sean Grieve appeared in all three games and didn’t allow an earned run over 4.1 innings with four strikeouts. The Tribe has nine of its next 11 games at Plumeri Park, where they are 15-3 this season.