It was an exhilarating weekend of baseball featuring extra-inning victories and even a no-hitter. Most importantly, it featured plenty of winning for the local programs. Without further ado, here is my best effort to rank their performances after two weeks.
*Adelphi, Farmingdale, St. Joseph’s, Old Westbury, Nassau and Suffolk CC have not begun yet and were not eligible for ranking this week.
Elite:
- St. John’s (Record: 7-0, Stock EVEN)
Not much more you can say about St. John’s that hasn’t been said. They look like a top-10 team in the nation. They have made easy work of teams of all calibers including the University of North Carolina for the second straight year. This weekend, they were in the Penn State Tournament in Cary, N.C. and promptly shut out Monmouth and UMBC before trouncing Penn State, 18-4. If you’d like to know the secret to their success, it starts with their 0.98 staff ERA led by Kevin Magee‘s 0.00 through two starts. They have outscored their opponents 49-8 through seven games. Luke Stampfl is leading the offense with an absurd slash line of .444/.531/.667 with John Valente right behind him with a .406 AVG.
This weekend they will travel to Davis, CA to take on UC Davis for a three-game set with a chance to duplicate last year’s start.
2. Stony Brook (Record: 6-1, Stock UP)
The Sea Wolves are firing on all cylinders. This weekend they defeated Iona, Sacred Heart and Norfolk State down in Norfolk, VA. They are off to their best program start since 2000. As I mentioned last week, they have often gotten off to slow starts and then turned it on once conference play begins but they have hit the ground running this year. Additionally, today was the program’s 1000th victory which is quite a milestone. The biggest factor in this success has been contributions from all around. Michael Wilson already has five multi-hit games and is riding a six-game hitting streak. Sean Buckhout is currently riding a five-game hit streak. Michael Russell had four hits today. Bobby Honeyman is leading the team in RBI with seven and they’ve done this all without Andruw Gazzola who is nursing a wrist injury. The starting staff of Greg Marino, Bret Clarke and Brian Herrmann is off to a great start and Aaron Glickstein has two wins out of the bullpen already and Aaron Pinto has three saves.
The big test will be this weekend as they travel to Gainesville, FL to take on the reigning national champion Florida Gators.
Trending UP
3. Hofstra (Record: 2-2, Stock UP)
Although the Pride lost two games on Friday, they completely changed the narrative on Saturday. They defeated Lamar 3-2 and 1-0, with Seamus Brazill firing the program’s first no-hitter in the nightcap. Freshman Brad Camarda fired five shutout innings in the earlier game. Even in the loss on Friday, John Rooney fired six shutout innings with eight strikeouts, as he raised his draft stock a bit. Two-time Axcess Baseball All-Long Island player Vito Friscia is leading the charge offensively with six hits through 14 at bats and two walks.
Treading Water:
4. Fordham (Record: 3-3-1, Stock EVEN)
I was at their game on Wednesday, they handled business against Army in the 75 degree weather. This weekend, however, they lost two of three to USF. In the victory on Friday night, Ben Greenberg, Anthony Dimeglio and Alvin Melendez combined on a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts. Nick Labella‘s sac fly was the difference. Overall, they’ve struggled offensively as they are hitting .220 as a team and scoring 3.5 runs per game. The good news is that their young pitchers appear to be adapting just fine to the college season and their ace and only senior, Greenberg, is prepared to anchor the rotation.
This weekend they will travel to Virginia to play a three-game set against James Madison University.
5. Maritime (Record: 1-1, Stock EVEN)
I was in attendance yesterday, and it was a shock to see their bats go silent in the second game of the DH after throughly dominating in the first game. They were held scoreless after a sac fly got them on the board in the first inning. They are returning all-but-one bat from last year so they should have a top-flight offense again. Granted, it was the ECAC Player of the Year and Triple Crown Award winner, Brian McLaughlin, but they will be fine offensively. The top of the rotation in Anthony D’Ancona and Travis Bruinsma is very talented and they pitched lights-out yesterday for the most part.
Another good sign was that their catcher, Steve Semler, threw out two runners with ease and that could be very important in the Skyline Conference which features teams like Old Westbury, St. Joseph’s and Farmingdale that really enjoy to put the pressure on defenses and utilize the stolen base. Semler might be the antidote to that.
This Saturday, they will host Southern Vermont in a DH.
