by Vinny Messana
This week was very eventful as St. Joseph’s, Molloy and Dowling were all in the NCAA Regionals. Despite having their seasons cut short, all three teams have a lot to be proud of and all represented themselves very well–which bodes well for their future in terms of locking down the top local talent.
There are only two local teams still playing–Suffolk CC in the College World Series and Stony Brook will open up the America East tournament this Wednesday against Maine.
Here’s our modified Power Rankings. As we did last week, it will be limited to the top 5.
1.Suffolk CC
Record: 25-6 (Stock UP)
Photo Credit: Nakeem Grant
As we have mentioned as nauseum, their offense has been historically good. Nicholas VonOhlen was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Combined with having the Region XV Player of the Year in Kristopher Killackey (8-0, 0.99 ERA, 67 Ks), they have a good shot to go where no team from this region has gone–and that’s winning the Div-III Ju-Co World Series. They will open up this weekend in North Carolina.
2. Molloy
Record: 31-23 (Stock DOWN)
It was a disappointing end to the season for a team that ran roughshod through the first two months of their season. They went two-and-out in the NCAA East Regionals, and they certainly had what it took to defeat both St. Thomas Aquinas and University of Bridgeport. Nevertheless, it was a successful season for the Lions. They had the ECC Player of the Year in Angelo Navetta (.372 AVG, 43 runs, 4 HR, 34 RBI, .440 OBP, 0 errors) and a First-Team All-ECC pitcher in Ron Bauer (7-3, 2.26 ERA, 83.2 IP, .187 OPP AVG). Additionally, Kevin Podell (71) and Deilyn Guzman (70) both eclipsed 70 hits for the season. They hit .303 as a team and stole 104 bases. They will be returning many of their starters next season, so they are in good shape to return to the regionals next season as well.
3. Dowling
Record: 28-25 (Stock UP)
It was really a tail of two seasons for the Golden Lions. On April 2, they sat at 6-14. From that point on, they went 22-11. Much of that was due to the resurgence of they core guys that struggled in the early part of the season. R.J. and Tim Going were absolute weapons at the plate, as was Michael Rizzitello. Chris Appell and Kenneth Fils-Aime came on strong towards the end of the season as well, especially in the ECC tournament. The pitching was led by Cody McPartland, Chris Cepeda and Jon Parisi. By year’s end, they could play with anyone. They won the first game of the regionals, led by McPartland’s CG shutout over No. 4 nationally ranked Southern New Hampshire. They lost the next two, but put up a valiant fight against Bridgeport in the elimination game. They will be losing some good talent–notably Rizzitello and R.J. Going, but they return their conference starters and that’s a huge benefit.
4. St. Joseph’s
Record: 25-13 (Stock EVEN)
Their 3-0 victory over Johns Hopkins was the program’s first ever win in the regionals. Ryan Aloise (8-2, 2.03 ERA) fired a CG shutout, and he was remarkable for them over the past month of the season. The offense got hot over the past couple weeks headlined by Nick Girardi, Anthony Bonilla and Brendan Sullivan. They will, unfortunately, be losing 15 seniors from this class but they have set the foundation for a good run the next few years thanks to good recruiting by Head Coach Rick Garrett and Assistant Paul Parsolano. They have a couple impact transfers and freshman coming in next year that could soften the blow of losing all those seniors.
5. Stony Brook
Record: 24-25 (Stock UP)
It’s been a roller coaster season for the Sea Wolves, but they get to start with a clean slate on Wednesday against Maine. They will enter the America East tournament as the No. 3 seed, looking to protect their throne. They will be looking for their top two arms (Chad Lee and Bret Clarke) to work deep into games as they have both done recently. Senior Tyler Honahan is coming off a CG shutout and has looked very good recently. With their depth in the lineup and a quality back end of the bullpen (Aaron Pinto, Teddy Rodliff, Kevin Kernan), you cannot count them out.
