Only a handful of teams were in action last week, so we held off on our weekly Power Rankings. This is a great week to start it–the cream has already begun to rise to the top. We will be adding more teams to the coverage this year–St. John’s, Fordham, Queens and Maritime.
Typically, the weekly Power Rankings will be for Exclusive aXcess members only, but this week will be for everyone.
Now is a great time to purchase your membership, as we will have an influx of member-only content throughout the season.
Without further ado, here’s Volume 1 of the 2017 Power Rankings, only including the teams that have played a game.
- St. John’s (7-0, Stock UP):
No debate here–the Red Storm have gotten off to a scorching start. They are off to their best start since 2010. They are firing on all cylinders and even beat the reigning national champs in Coastal Carolina. John Valente is leading the offensive attack with 16 hits in 31 at bats, Jamie Galazin and Jesse Berardi both have 13 hits each. They are hitting .363 as a team with a 1.97 ERA. That’ll get it done.
2. LIU Post (6-3, Stock UP):
They are the only other team with a winning record. They are riding a five-game winning streak, and coming off an impressive 6-2 victory over No. 12 Franklin Pierce. They also beat No. 6 Southern New Hampshire. Anthony Vaglica, Jimmy Mendyk, Dave Brehm and Rob Andreoli are off to phenomenal starts offensively. Freshman Noah Lorenzo has 14 Ks against 1 BB through two starts. Jake DeCarli appears to have regained his 2015 form when we named him Cy Young of Long Island. Dan Jagiello seems to have found a comfort zone as the closer. Great start for the Pioneers.
3. Queens (2-3, Stock UP):
Coach Reardon stated the team was very optimistic this year and the early returns are positive. They completed an upset of Franklin Pierce on Friday and lost 4-3 in Game 1 of the DH. They are only hitting .212 as a team, but the pitching has been solid. Transfer Nick Morena (7 IP, 12 K, 0 R) appears to be a real steal for them, and he could form a dynamic duo with senior RHP Joe Broderick at the top of the rotation.
4. Hofstra (2-5, Stock UP):
They won all three games this weekend in the Mardi Gras Invitational and trending up. They also lost a 1-0 game, so they could easily be 3-4. Nick Bottari, Teddy Cillis, Sean Rausch, Mikey Reisner and Steven Foster are off to hot starts with the bats. They are looking to get senior David Leiderman and sophomore Vito Friscia going offensively and they will put up some crooked numbers. Grad student Jorge Marrero was 86-89 MPH in his last outing and he has been sensational (9.1 IP, 0 R, 9 K), and John Rooney is coming off five no-hit innings. Cillis has 11 K through 9 innings, but has struggled with command. They could be in better shape on the mound than people anticipated.
5. Fordham (1-5, Stock DOWN):
They are off to a good start with the bats (.287), led by Luke Stamfl. He has 15 hits through 26 at bats, but the pitching has gotten off to a poor start. They have compiled a 7.53 ERA, but they did just face the No. 21 ranked team in the nation in Long Beach State. They will be in North Carolina next weekend before coming home for a seven-game home stand.
6. Stony Brook (1-5, Stock DOWN):
It has been a slow start for the Sea Wolves, and they have UCF next weekend. The good news, is that they have shaken off poor starts in the past and still won 30 games. The bright spot has been freshman Michael Wilson, who is leading the team with a .353 AVG. Freshman Brian Herrmann (9 IP, 1 ER so far) had a very strong start today and Sam Turcotte (8.2 IP, 9 K) has been a pleasant surprise. They’ll need sophomore Bret Clarke to pitch the way he did last year.
7. NYIT (1-6, Stock DOWN):
70 strikeouts offensively in seven games is not what Coach Malvagna wanted to see. In fact, he noted that their goal was to cut down on last year’s strikeout totals. The good news is that they have a ton of fire power on offense that could make up for it. Additionally, freshman Brendan Dowd looks like the real deal. He put one over the 420 foot fence in CF yesterday and just barely missed putting another one out in the eighth inning. They also should be fine in the rotation. Frank Valentino (94 MPH) and Matt Diaz (96 MPH) lit up the radar guns on Friday, as did Elias Martinez on Saturday. They will need to hope that the middle relievers can get the crucial outs late in the game. Twice they were undone by spotty relief work.
8. Molloy (1-6, Stock DOWN):
They defeated Concordia today, 9-2, to salvage their trip to South Carolina. Prior to that, it was a very underwhelming start. The team ERA is 9.35 and the team AVG is .235. It is very early and they will figure it out, but definitely not the start they had in mind following an appearance in the East Regional last year and returning many of last year’s starters. The bright spot has been Elijah Leerdam, who has 9 hits and eight RBI through 27 at bats. They should rebound fine with a veteran rotation of Ron Bauer, Bobby Kelly, Anthony Catinella and Dom Danetti.
