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Marc Rutledge Signs Deal With River City Rascals
Photo Credit: Dowling Athletics Dowling has a rich pitching tradition. Among those who have dominated for the Golden Lions is Marc Rutledge, a 2012 graduate. On February 11, he signed a deal with the River City Rascals of the Frontier League. I had a chance to speak with him. Usually I take the most poignant quotes and incorporate them into an article. In this case, every answer was extremely well-thought out and eloquent so I will post the transcript of the conversation. When you look back on your career at Dowling, what was your fondest memory?Wow, as I was reading the question my mind drifted back to my freshman year, when we dropped game 1 to Adelphi in the Regionals. We won the next 3 to get us into the Championship, against Adelphi again. This same situation looked all too familiar t...
Stony Brook Prepared to Get Back Into National Spotlight
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana It has been nearly three years since the “shock the world” mantra was ubiquitous in the baseball community. Initially, it was confined to the northeast region, but after the 52-win season sent them to Omaha for the College World Series, everyone was familiar with the Sea Wolves from a small town in Long Island. After one lean year and one that featured a quick postseason exit, the Sea Wolves will be looking to get back to being the feared team that the 2012 squad was. The 2015 team will be forced to replace the production that have walked out the door when last year’s solid group of seniors graduated. Kevin Courtney, Kevin Krause and Anthony Italiano were all leaders that contributed to building the Stony Brook program to what it has become. Kr...
First Year Head Coach Mike Gaffney Knows Pitching Will Allow LIU To Make Noise
Photo Credit: Adrienne Daley PhotographyTom Tolan is the reigning ECC Player of the Year Coming off an 18-19 season with a first year Head Coach would generally signal for a rebuilding season. That is not the case, however, when you have a pitching staff that C.W. Post possess. Head Coach Mike Gaffney, who is taking over for his father knows that the team will rely on their strong rotation. “Definitely,” said Gaffney when asked if pitching will be their key. “In a wood bat conference with our arms, it will be our strength,” he added. Gaffney will be leaning on the combination of Joey Arena and Jake DeCarli to pitch deep into games and dominate. DeCarli led the team in ERA last season with a microscopic 1.03 in 43.2 innings. He held the opposition to only 27 hits and...
Should the Season Be Changed?
Photo Credit: Adam Rubin One week before actual games are scheduled to be played outside, the thermometer reads 1 degree fahrenheit. Pitching injuries are at an all-time high in Major League Baseball, and that’s even with optimal conditions. Expecting 18-22 arms to be prepared for the polar vortex is irrational and ludicrous. There appears to be an easy fix, and it doesn’t involve spending $634 million on a venue. Football is a sport that is not dependent upon ideal weather conditions. A playoff game was once played with a wind chill of -48 degrees. By the way, it was a sellout of over 50,000 fans. Simply put, football is meant to be played in the cold. During a college season, however, the practices begin in the suffocating summer heat. The opening weekend is the last week of ...
Tom Caputo: “Success Breeds Success”
Photo Credit: Vinny MessanaDowling Will be Looking to Duplicate Last Year’s terrific season 2014 was a banner year for Dowling. In addition to winning 36 games, they were one victory away from heading to Carey, N.C. to compete in the Div. II College World Series. With their pitching staff–that ranked No. 1 in all of the country–they would’ve had a decent chance to win it all, too. Now that the dust has settled on the year, Head Coach Tom Caputo is ready to move on and is not concerned about the class of graduating seniors that are not with the team anymore . “Success breeds success,” said the fourth year Head Coach. “We have a group of guys that have been waiting for their opportunity the past couple of years. Now it’s their turn,” he a...
Hofstra Swept by UCLA
Photo Credit: Hofstra Athletic Communications The Hofstra Pride have begun their season with the dreaded cross-country sweep. They were outscored 43-10 by the 2013 Div. I champion UCLA Bruins. The third game was certainly the most competitive. Down 10-0 in the seventh, the Pride mounted a furious rally and scored five runs to cut the lead in half. Mat Anunziata, Eastport-South Manor ’14, drove in a run with an RBI single. Jake Fallon followed suit with an RBI single. Steven Foster, Sachem North ’14, drew a walk with the bases loaded. Shortstop Dalton Rouleau drove in two runs with a single. They also scored two in the ninth on a two-run single by Anunziata, but that was the closest they would come. They lost 11-7 to drop to 0-3 on the season. Often times when east coast teams o...
Stony Brook Drops Two of Three To Nicholls State
Photo Credit: Stony Brook AthleticsTyler Honahan began his sseason in style. While the entire east coast has been blanketed with a foot of snow and sub-zero temperatures, Stony Brook was able to escape the cold and head to Louisiana to kick off their 2015 campaign. After winning the first game 6-0, the bats went ice cold and they dropped the final two games of the series. In their victory on Friday night, junior Tyler Honahan tossed a gem–six innings of one-hit ball, striking out three and walking two. The offense sprung to life in the fifth inning, scoring three runs to open up a 5-0 lead–which was more than enough for Honahan and the relief corp. Shortstop Cole Peragine drove in two runs, knocked two hits and scored a run for the Sea Wolves. Freshman Andruw Gazzola, Longwood ...
Molloy Filled With Young, Battle-Tested Players
Photo Credit: Molloy Athletics Usually teams are either young or experienced. In the case of Molloy, however, they may have found a way to be both. “We have a young team, but they all have experience playing in the conference tournament,” said Head Coach Joe Fucarino. Last year’s team finished with a 20-24 overall record, but qualified for postseason play. They were eliminated by St. Thomas Aquinas. That team graduated their terrific starting rotation of Max Schonfeld–who owns the program record for lowest-career ERA at 2.19, Alex Miden and Anthony Eichhorn. Fucarino said they are all “top end players”, as well as outfielder Carlos Guzman, who hit .287 with 24 RBI and 16 SBs. On a positive note, the team will be returning two players who were terrific as...
Coach Stephan Believes This Can Be the Year
Photo Credit: Harris Rappel From 1990-’93 the Buffalo Bills set a dubious record by losing four consecutive Super Bowls. While it has not occured on the national spotlight, Old Westbury has made a similar habit of falling just shy at the finish line. Each year since 2010, they have been defeated by Farmingdale State in the championship of the Skyline Conference. Head Coach Rod Stephan is optimistic, however, that this will be the year that they turn the tables. “We’re as good or better than Farmingdale,” claims the fifth year Head Coach. “It’s just been a matter of a play or two. We have the talent. We just need to go out and have fun,” he added. Stephan may have a case. He noted that he has three returning outfielders that have been All-Region pl...
Which Position Is Most Difficult? Part 3
Although hitting has been a premium, it takes a tremendous athlete to dominate on the mound Baseball is a unique sport in many ways. Among those reasons is that it takes a specific skill set to excel at each position. Sure, some players like Pete Rose and Craig Biggio have become All Stars at multiple positions, but they are very much in the minority on that. Most players develop skills throughout their amateur careers that limit them to a particular position. It is often a source of pride for a player to say they excel at a difficult position such as shortstop or catcher. I wanted to get their take on it, so I asked former college players about their experiences playing the position and they gave some great insight. Here is Part 3 of the series…Tom Buckley, Pitcher, Kellenberg HS a...
Richard Garrett Confident Year Two Will See Improvement
Photo Credit: St. Joseph’s Athletics In his first year at the helm for the St. Joseph’s Golden Eagles, Richard Garrett’s squad struggled to a 17-20 overall record (9-7 conference). He is confident, however, that this team has made the necessary improvements to take the next step and compete with the likes of Old Westbury and Farmingdale State for the Skyline Conference title. “We had an excellent recruiting class coming in,” said Garrett. “We had a ton of injuries last season. We lost our top six players. Three of them are coming back,” he said. That alone should warrant the improvement necessary to finish over .500. When you factor in new players such as INF James Nakashian, C Brendan Sullivan (from Farmingdale) and P Nick Girardi, the team could ...
Hofstra Coach John Russo Anxious to Start the Season
Photo Credit: Hofstra Athletic Communications “Back-to-back seasons we had the go-ahead run on third base with the chance to make the playoffs on the line,” said seventh year Head Coach John Russo. “I’m anxious to see them play,” he said. The Pride will be fielding a very young team. According to Russo, only eight of the players will be juniors or seniors. The team will consist of 22 underclassmen–an extraordinary number. There will be three freshman in the Opening Day lineup on Friday against UCLA. Russo believes the most crucial stretch of the season will be the first 20 games leading up to conference play because he has a lot of questions to answer before them in regards to the roles players will be in. For example he said, “Who will replace Bre...
