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| Photo Credit: Molloy Athletics |
Usually teams are either young or experienced. In the case of Molloy, however, they may have found a way to be both.
“We have a young team, but they all have experience playing in the conference tournament,” said Head Coach Joe Fucarino.
Last year’s team finished with a 20-24 overall record, but qualified for postseason play. They were eliminated by St. Thomas Aquinas.
That team graduated their terrific starting rotation of Max Schonfeld–who owns the program record for lowest-career ERA at 2.19, Alex Miden and Anthony Eichhorn.
Fucarino said they are all “top end players”, as well as outfielder Carlos Guzman, who hit .287 with 24 RBI and 16 SBs.
On a positive note, the team will be returning two players who were terrific as freshamn–Ron Bauer and Kevin Podell.
Podell was named ECC Rookie of the Year. He batted .297 with 23 RBI and 22 R scored. It was Bauer, however, that may have actually performed better.
He batted .338 with a .410 OBP and 21 RBI with 24 R scored.
Fucarino noted that Bauer will actually see some time on the mound. He will join a rotation of Bobby Kelly–who moves from the bullpen after posting a 0.71 ERA last year, Alex Brosnan and Shea Spitzbarth.
He is very happy with what he sees from the transfers and freshman this year–notably Angelo Navetta and Anthony Catinella. They are two players whom he expects to contribute on the mound.
The team has only three seniors. Fucarino is not concerned, because of their caliber of leadership
The challenge will be their schedule. Fucarino noted that the schedule is very difficult in the beginning of the season, but he does that to better prepare the team for the rigors of the ECC schedule.
“The conference is always a grind,” he said. “There’s no easy weekend. It’s a tough schedule to prepar for,” he added.
The team will travel to South Carolina next week to begin their 2015 campaign. They have been picked to finish fourth by the coaches of the conference.
