Following a magical ride to the Division-II College World Series, NY Tech enters 2020 as the No. 10 ranked Division-II team in the nation, according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
There’s been an aura around them this since May when they knocked off perennial powerhouses Franklin Pierce and Wilmington to capture the East Regional and Southern New Hampshire in the Super Regional. It has catapulted their recruiting to another level.
This offseason, they added Andrew Imperatore (Rider University), Bobby Vath (University of Rhode Island) and Tyler Schmid (Suffolk CC) on the mound and David Franchi (LIU Post) at second base. All of these players are expected to contribute immediately. They also received a boost from players returning from injury such as Brandon Alberto, Matt Bartnik and Matt Boyko.
The biggest reason to believe they will not suffer a serious letdown is that they graduated only one player (Jake Lebel) from the starting lineup and return All-American E.J. Cumbo as well as lineup stalwarts Ben McNeill, Ryan Kuskowski and John LaRocca. The pitching staff returns D.J. Masuck and Joseph Murphy. All of the aforementioned players were All-Conference, while Masuck re-wrote the program pitching record books including wins (12) and innings pitched (99.1).
Keep an eye on freshman 3B E.J. Exposito and C/3B Mike Draskin as a player that could provide immediate impact as well as Andrew Florides, who is back to full health after a season-ending back injury last year.
The Bears are also set up for long-term success as their 2019 season resulted in an influx of top 2020 players committing to NY Tech such as Matt Milone, Nick Barreiros, Jack Greco, JJ Devito, Chris McGuggart, Garrett Scavelli, Chris Vivenzio and Christian Fils-Aime.
Simply put, the team’s resurgence in 2019 can have a long-lasting impact.
They will open up their 2020 season with a trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C in the “Northeast Challenge at the Ripken Experience” which will include Franklin Pierce, New Haven, Southern Connecticut and Wilmington. The first game will be on Thursday, February 20 against Franklin Pierce at 5:30pm.
After that trip, they return home to Angelo Lorenzo Memorial Field where they will host Southern New Hampshire in a crucial four-game series.
They go back down south on March 10 to sunny West Palm Beach, FLA for the Palm Beach Classic. They will play six games there over the span of five days before heading back north to kick off their ECC schedule against Bridgeport.
Here’s the top-20 along with their 2019 record:
- Tampa (45-14)
- U.C. San Diego (41-16)
- Colorado Mesa (53-12)
- Central Missouri (46-16)
- Catawba (47-14)
- Mercyhurst (36-16)
- North Greenville (45-11)
- Ashland (48-15)
- Southern New Hampshire (40-15)
- New York Tech (37-16)
- Delta St. (42-14)
- Angelo St. (46-12)
- West Texas A & M (41-12)
- Bellarmine (34-21)
- Newberry (41-16)
- Nova Southeastern (34-17)
- Augustana (43-16)
- Minnesota St. Mankato (39-15)
- Millersville (38-16)
- Mount Olive (31-19)
