Here is Joseph Murphy showing off his knuckleball. He was All-American at Suffolk CC last season and will be a key cog in their rotation pic.twitter.com/0Gt9PajxNu
— Axcess Baseball (@axcessbaseball) September 23, 2017
We continue our Fall Ball Series with St. Joseph’s. I was down at Gregg Alfano Field watching their intrasquad game today.
Coming off a 25-win season, the Golden Eagles are once again a formidable player in the Skyline Conference entering 2018.
Despite having their championship hopes dashed by Mount St. Mary’s last season, the Golden Eagles have the most complete roster in the conference. They will be led by a potent lineup featuring Lou Doria, Paul Britt, Daniel Campanelli, Dylan Piscitelli, Matthew Burnett, Tyler Crafa, Anthony Raucci and Tyler Sanderson.
Doria is coming off one of the finest seasons in program history in 2017. The Wantagh native smacked nine HR, drove in 42 runs and compiled a slash line of .361/.481/.722 which landed him on our All-Long Island team. The gentle giant, who stands 6’4″, is not only one of the best players in the conference but also the region. He was selected to represent New York in the college portion of the Power Showcase in Miami. He has also garnered interest from the New York Mets in the upcoming MLB Draft. If he continues to show his power, they will not be the only team interested.
The team hit .319 last season, but they will be tasked with replacing their leading hitter (Anthony Bonilla), who was a mainstay in the lineup for four seasons and set the program-record for most hits in a career.
Both players were critical to their offensive success last year, but Coach Rick Garrett is confident in the returning players he has.
The biggest addition is Joseph Murphy. He was also named to our All-Long Island team while a member of Suffolk CC. He put together a staggering stat line, which also landed him on the All-American team. His slash line of .486/.563/.686 SLG is impressive enough, but he was also the ace of the pitching staff and was 6-1 with a 1.21 ERA over 52.0 IP while yielding only 7 walks against 62 strikeouts. They view him as the type of pitcher needed to replace graduating seniors Brandon Lubrano and Josh Outsen.
He is also very excited about first baseman/DH Louis Fontinha, who hit .306 last year and can really drive the baseball as well.
The outfield of Doria, Burnett, Gehrig Monturo and Tyler Costa can really cover ground. Garrett noted that Burnett and Costa have exceptional speed and can cover a ton of ground, while Doria has deceptive speed for his size.
The Golden Eagles landed six players on the All-Conference team, and that doesn’t even include Crafa, who was named first-team All-Region with a .431 AVG with 18 stolen bases in 18 attempts.
The lineup should provide plenty of runs for Paul Parsolano’s pitching staff. They will be led by Murphy, and a handful of returning arms such as Nick Clemente, P.J. Martino and Anthony Caminiti. All of them have proven to pitch at this level. Clemente won five games last season, and really dedicated himself to improving in the offseason after a tough outing against Maritime in the postseason. Garrett is very thrilled with the shape he reported to the season in.
Caminiti looked really good in the intrasquad game, showing the type of clean mechanics and velocity that allowed him to compile a 0.64 ERA last season out of the bullpen.
The bullpen will be counting on hard-throwing newcomer Mike Flynn. The Eastport-South Manor grad is transferring from the College of St. Rose and can touch 90 MPH but sits in the upper 80s. The combination of him and Michael Catanzaro, who is returning from an arm injury, can be very effective in the late innings.
The Golden Eagles are in the midst of a very prosperous time for the program. They have not only been winning, but their athletes are performing very well in the classroom and their graduates have been very successful landing high-paying first-time jobs.
Coach Garrett has turned the program into one of the destination colleges on the island.
