The cream is rising to the top. The local college baseball teams have really begun to play great baseball and things will get really interesting when we get our first dosage of playoff baseball with the Skyline Conference tournament getting underway on Wednesday through Sunday. St. Joseph’s will be hosting the tournament, but home field advantage has not meant much the previous few seasons–they won at Farmingdale last year, Old Westbury won at St. Joseph’s in 2015 and Farmingdale won at Old Westbury in 2014. It will be interesting. The ECC and NE-10 playoffs will be the following week and the America East, Atlantic-10 and Big East will be the week after that. Here’s our 10th installment of the weekly Power Rankings.
- St. John’s (Record: 31-7, Stock UP)
We covered their game yesterday, it was a rare off day for them, but they bounced right back today with a one-run win over Seton Hall. They are ranked 11th in the nation. They have continued to roll, despite compiling two losses this week. They will have Iona an Georgetown this week.
2. St. Joseph’s (Record: 24-12, Stock UP)
They lost both games to NJ City on Wednesday but bounced right back with a weekend sweep of Purchase with wins from Nick Clemente (5-1) and Josh Outsen (7-0). They will look to protect their crown this weekend.
3. LIU Post (Record: 24-16, Stock UP)
They are riding a four-game winning streak and have now won seven of eight games. Their winning formula has been their strong starting rotation of Jake DeCarli and Noah Lorenzo (both 6-1 records), but now James Varela and Brian Kavanagh have been throwing the ball well. Then they hope to get the ball to their lights-out closer Dan Jagiello, who has nine saves and 28 Ks over 17.1 IP. Rob Andreoli has joined the exclusive 60-hit club. They are good position in the ECC playoffs with how their team is constructed.
4. Stony Brook (Record: 20-21, Stock UP)
They bounced back from Wednesday’s DH sweep to Fairfield with a weekend conference sweep of Maine. They are currently in fourth place in the America East. They have been led offensively by Toby Handley (.340), Brandon Janofsky (.321) and Casey Baker (.310) with Dylan Resk (11 HR, 25 RBI) providing the pop. Bret Clarke has been throwing the ball much better, and Teddy Rodliff has been their bullpen ace–working multiple shutdown innings when necessary.
5. Maritime (Record: 19-11, Stock EVEN)
They went 4-1 this week, and hung tough with Farmingdale despite losing the first game to Matt Seelinger. They proved that they are legit with a strong regular season, but now will be a test with how they perform under the intense pressure of the conference playoffs. Fortunately, they are playing with house money having been overlooked much of the season. It will be interesting how they respond. Their offense was tremendous all season, having four individuals compile 20+ RBI.
6. Farmingdale (Record: 21-14, Stock EVEN)
They have won seven of nine games and proved that they can never be counted out. They have the advantage of having a dynamic pitcher in Matt Seelinger (50.2 IP, 67 K, 1.60 ERA), but they will need one of Matthew Constantine, David Otero, Joe Marino step up this weekend if they are to return to the top. They received tremendous offensive seasons from Dalton McCarthy (.571 SLG) and Vincent Rice (.547 SLG), they will be crucial this week. Will anyone pitch to McCarthy ?
7. Nassau (Record: 18-9, Stock UP)
Nick Marino is sixth in the nation in hitting (.494) and has been superb all year. They are hitting .329 as a team and are riding a four-game win streak. Joe Minucci has been leading the rotation all year and is undefeated at 6-0. James Murphy is 4-1 with a 0.83 ERA and has been lights-out as well.
8. Old Westbury (Record: 20-15, Stock UP)
They have quietly won four straight and have plenty of players from their 2015 championship team. The loss of Chris Tessitore is big, though, so they will need another arm to step up and get big outs this weekend. They are hitting .329 as a team with a .456 SLG, led by Tommy Ziegen (.429) and Jesse Russo (.409).
9. Suffolk (Record: 22-10-1, Stock DOWN)
They were swept by ASA, but that is a team that has historically given them trouble. They will look to bounce back this week against the Community College of Rhode Island.
10. Fordham (Record: 18-22, Stock DOWN)
They are falling quick, having lost nine consecutive games but six of those have been within three runs. They will look to turn the tides this week against Hofstra and LIU-Brooklyn.
