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They will be leaning on left handed hitter Matt Overton who batted .367 with a .979 OPS. Several other impact bats in the lineup such as David Franchi, Jake McCarthy, Thomas Brady, Garrett Scavelli, Pete Theodorellis, etc pic.twitter.com/3kJLHN0YvC
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 6, 2021
Despite all the obstacles that playing during a pandemic presented, Molloy managed to have their best season in program history in 2021. They went 25-11, captured the ECC Championship with two wins over rival St. Thomas Aquinas, and then rattled off four wins in the NCAA East Regional Championship before running out of pitching and losing 9-2 against the Southern New Hampshire Penmen.
Coach Joe Fucarino, entering his 17th season at the helm, was particularly impressed with the determination of the group.
“The leadership and focus was huge,” he said. “James Messina and Sean Hogan really ran the ship. Even now, there’s lots of upper class leadership. Everyone knows the system and the culture. Even the new guys, they’ve already gelled right in as far as understanding protocol,” he said.
The biggest reason they had such a successful season was their offense. They had a ridiculous triple slash line of .325/.426/.458 and averaged 8.5 runs per game. They eclipsed double-digit runs 10 times on the season.
From that offense, they graduated Sean Hogan (.394 AVG) and James Messina (.297 AVG). Those will be big losses they’ll have to replace, but they had other talented players that didn’t get much playing time last year due to the heavy upperclassmen presence and they’ll get their shot this year – players like SS Chris Einemann and 2B Gavin McAlonie. They also got talented transfers like catcher Matt Yip and SS JJ Devito.
So there’s no doubt that the offense will be potent yet again. Here’s some of their returning players and their stats:
Matt Overton: .367 AVG, .979 OPS, 38 RBI (team high)
Pete Theodorellis: .311 AVG, .889 OPS, 41 runs (team high)
Jake McCarthy: .329 AVG, 2 HR, 26 RBI
Garrett Scavelli : .358 AVG, 1.009 OPS (team high), .547 SLG (team high)
David Franchi: .333 AVG, .932 OPS, .429 OBP, 23 BB, 19 K
Thomas Brady (catcher): .280 AVG, .849 OPS, 20 BB, 17 K, .429 OBP
On the pitching staff, they had a dynamic duo of sixth-year senior Tim Panetta and freshman Charlie Cucchiara. Panetta was the steady presence from day-one, he led the staff with 68 innings and compiled a 3.29 ERA. 7-2 record and 1.11 WHIP. All solid numbers, but remarkably they paled in comparison to Cucchiara. The freshman became their most dominant pitcher. He wound up firing a complete game shutout against STAC in the ECC Championship – proving no moment was too big for him. All he did was follow that up with another complete game, this time in the regional against Goldey-Beacom. All told, he fired six complete games, had a 1.80 ERA, 0.87 WHIP over 55 IP. His last four starts were all 7+ innings with two earned runs or else. Needless to say, they feel good about their chances when he is on the mound.
“Basically during the pandemic year, during the week of the shutdown he was going to get moved into the rotation. We knew what he would become,” said Fucarino. “Me and my pitching coach Alex Brosnan both saw him at Diamond Nation and we said we are getting this kid. He’s just a pitcher – just a flat-out beast on the mound. He’s very similar to Greg Maddux – three pitches for strikes, he battles and he competes.” Quite lofty praise for Cucchiara.
Fucarino went on to add that about the rest of the team. He said, “Our depth is strong. I like our depth in everything. I like our returners in how they developed. We got Brian Morrisey and the new guys. We also had some incoming freshman last year that didn’t get to log a lot of innings like Ryan Hynes and Ziv Gar, Richie Gennaro and AJ Verga. They’ve had back-to-back short seasons because of a lack of baseball. Plus our upperclassmen are just very mature. Everyone has been around for a while.
They will be looking for Brian Morrisey, a seasoned pitcher from Stony Brook, to step in and throw quality innings atop the rotation. they have plenty of other reliable pitchers like Ryan Karp – who threw five shutout innings in the regionals in relief of Theodorellis, they have Billy Wildeman, Robert Lucano and Chris Wiercinski.
They will open up their season on February 18 at Tusculum University in Tennessee. They also have trips to Myrtle Beach and Florida before starting their conference schedule.
“It’s nice to get three trips in. I like to bring the guys to different areas of the country. There will be 16 teams from the region at Ripken, then at the Lynn Invitational there will be five games in six days, then get ready for conference.”
This year will return to the 50-game schedule that is customary. After the pandemic-shortened 2020 and abbreviated 36-game season in 2021, this will feel like a return to a full college baseball season finally. Fucarino’s team is focused, prepared and ready to defend their ECC title.
