It was the opening week for Division-I baseball teams. While it is always reason for excitement, the results are often underwhelming for Long Island teams considering the disadvantage of playing against southern teams that have been outside since January 1. It’s important to keep that in mind, because more often than not, a rough start to the season is not indicative of anything else.
For Week 1 of our Power Rankings, we will limit it to the Division-I programs because the only Division-II school to play this weekend was LIU Post who played the 7-time Division-II National Champions.
Without further ado, here she goes…
- Stony Brook (Record: 2-1, Trending UP)
All things considered, it was about as good of an Opening Weekend for Stony Brook as they could’ve hoped for. To go down to Miami and face a team that won 26 games in 2018 and come away with a series win is nothing short of impressive. In Game 1, they won 13-7 behind a strong outing from ace Greg Marino. The redshirt junior is certainly on the draft radar. Last year, he won seven games but struggled in his first couple outings against the best teams in the country–which, to me showed he wasn’t quite ready for professional baseball. I think Friday proves that we are going to see an even better version of him this season. Additionally, they hit 4 HR (Dylan Resk, John Tuccillo, Michael Russell, Michael Wilson). They smacked 14 hits, which was impressive in a season-opener on the road. They came back from the dead on Saturday, trailing two runs in the 9th when Michael Wilson crushed a go-ahead 3-run shot. That’s why he was drafted by Boston coming out of high school. He already has half of last season’s home run total. They dropped Game 3, in Jared Milch‘s debut. I would say it’s no reason for concern but they will definitely be hoping it was just a matter of first outing jitters because he is a lynchpin for the rotation this season. They will be back in action on Friday in Louisiana.
2. St. John’s (Record 0-3)
There’s no shame in losing to the No. 3 team in the nation. Going to LA and playing UCLA is a bucket-list kind of thing for young athletes so it wasn’t a completely lost weekend. From a baseball standpoint, though, getting swept to start the season is far from ideal. After losing 3-2 on Opening Night, they got crushed by a cumulative score of 20-1 the next two nights. That is very uncharacteristic of an Ed Blankmeyer-coached team. They will get back at it this weekend at Western Carolina for a three-game set hoping to get their season going.
3. Fordham (Record 0-3)
.@AggieBaseball fans are ruthless.pic.twitter.com/TEtpr7LVZM
— Cut4 (@Cut4) February 17, 2019
As you can see in the above video, the Aggie fans are a different kind of dedicated. I was there in 2016, and I can attest to that. With that being said, it’s an extreme longshot to expect a New York team to march into College Station and escape with even one win. They did come close in Game 3, squandering their 1-0 lead in the fifth inning and losing 3-1. The frustrating thing about that loss, is that they had their best reliever, Kyle Martin, on the mound so a victory was not outside of the realm at that point. It’s not like he was hit all over the yard, though, as the tying and go-ahead runs scored on sac flies. Alvin Melendez put up zeros for the first 3.2 innings. Another positive sign was freshman Jason Coules crushing his first collegiate home run on Saturday and driving in five runs this weekend. They will face North Florida for a four-game series this weekend in Jacksonville. It will be a great opportunity for the young players to showcase what they have.
4. Hofstra (Record 1-3)
Unfortunately, I have to put them fourth despite their win because of the strength of competition. The SEC is simply a more difficult challenge than the Southland Conference. In any event, Hofstra was able to come away with a victory in the first game of the DH on Saturday. The difference in the game was a sixth inning 3-R shot by Rob Weissheier to give the Pride a 3-1 lead. Brad Camarda fired six innings, allowing one run with three strikeouts. They will have this week off, and will head down to Kissimmee for the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational to play Pittsburgh, Central Michigan, Saint Peter’s and Butler before heading back to the island on March 7.
