Doucette's America East Baseball Notes 5/23/17

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With the America East regular season now complete and the conference tournament right around the corner, let’s check out how things went this season. UMass-Lowell is not eligible to play in this year’s event and they just finished the fourth and final year of reclassification and will be a part of the mix in 2018.

Binghamton finished the regular season as the conference champs, with a league record of 15-4 and 30-11 overall. Their season was interrupted by a stretch of twenty-five days in which the team could not take part in any baseball activity because of early spring cold weather and snow. Despite all of that they still manageD to not only put a good season together but also found their way to the top of several categories this year.

Binghamton had the lowest ERA in the league at 3.34 giving up 131 earned runs in 352.2 innings pitched. Their overall walk to strikeout ratio was very good only walking 124 while fanning 267. The advantage of throwing strike one was a lesson learned by this staff. When opposing teams did put the ball in play, Binghamton was also pretty good and fielding and throwing. They finished third in the America East in fielding percentage at .975 with 38 errors in 41 games played. They turned 26 double plays during the year and had only three passed balls. Teams did run on them a little bit stealing 21 bases in 31 attempts, but overall, this is a team that understands how to pitch and plays defense, which is a good combination if you are looking to win championships.

Bearcats Sophomore right-handed pitcher Nick Gallagher has been their go-to guy on the mound this season. As he enters the tournament Gallagher leads the conference in ERA at 2.33, opponent batting average at .203, wins with eight, innings pitched at 65.2 and starts with 11. Exactly what an ace of a staff is supposed to give you. If there is a negative to what he has done it would be in two areas. First, he leads the America East in HBP with six and is second in wild pitches with four. Stats that might make you nervous in tight games.

On the offensive side of the ball, we look at the Hartford Hawks. Ashton Bardzell leads the team in batting average at .352. 62 hits in 47 games played a slugging at a .633 clip while having an on base percentage of .455. He leads in several other offense areas as well, like total bases at 112, triples with five and home runs at nine, just to name a few. The Hawks come into the tourney with a team batting average of .279 which is good, but what is not, is the opponents batting average which stands at .315. Hartford’s pitching staff has spent too much time in the stretch position instead of pitching in the full windup.

Stony Brook also has a player filling up the stats sheet this season and his name is Toby Hanley. He ranks third in hitting at .346 and three this eight triples lead the conference. He is third in hits with 63 and is fourth in runs scored with 42. The senior, from Whitby, Ontario is having a fine final season for the Seawolves. He three-hit games to his credit so far in 2017, while committing only two errors in the outfield this season.

The America East tournament gets underway in Lowell, MA. on Wednesday with three games on tap. Winner get an automatic berth into the NCAA baseball tourney.