CWS: America East Champion Heading to Florida

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CWS: America East Champion Heading to Florida

The field of 64 was unveiled at noon eastern time Monday. The Hartford Hawks, fresh off winning the America East Championship last weekend over Stony Brook found out where and whom they would play in the field next weekend. They are seeded fourth with an overall record of 26-29 and are heading to Florida, where they will be in the Stetson Regional along with South Florida out of the American Athletic Conference, and Oklahoma State out of the Big Twelve.

The Hawks will meet the number one seed, and the host school the Stetson Hatters on Friday, June 1, at 7 pm EST. The Hatters are out of the Atlantic Sun Conference and they become the first team from this league to host a regional. Stetson finished with an overall record of 45-1 and will bring with them the nations longest winning streak at 15 games. They were 29-3 at home this season and 15-3 in conference play.

Listen in as @HartfordHawks baseball fans explode the moment the announcement is made on the big screen at @wobwesthartford that @HartfordBASE is off to Deland, Florida for the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament!! Go get 'em Hawks!! pic.twitter.com/vBaY9tszpZ

— Abe Hefter (@hefteronthehabs) May 28, 2018

The Hatters did face two teams in this field, Army from the Patriot League (1-1 vs them), and Florida State out of the ACC (1-2 against ). Stetson was a top sixteen seed in this tournament.

The Hatters are built the old fashion way with pitching and defense. Pitching is the strength of this team with a staff ERA of 2.58. All four potential starters have sub 3.00 earned run average and they are led by Junior Logan Gilbert. He sports a 10-1 record, 2.52 ERA, 100 IP, 60 hits given up, 143 strikeouts and only 20 walks. Gilbert throws strikes and plenty of them. He should get the ball on Friday night versus Hartford.

Gilbert has lots of support. Junior Jack Perkins is 10-2, with a 2.57 ERA, 94.2 innings pitch, 86 hits, 93 SO, and 30 base on balls. Sophomore, Mitchell Senger is 8-2 with a 2.65 ERA, 59 hits, 107 K’s, and 27 walks. Junior, Joey Gonzalez checks in with an 8-3 record, 1.77 earned run average, 71.1 IP, 50 H, 74 strikeouts, and 30 BB.

Your 2018 #ASUNBSB Champions! pic.twitter.com/mAQZU1M4Um

— #ASUNBSB⚾ (@ASUNBSB) May 26, 2018

When its time to close out games, the Hatters turn it over to Senior Brooks Wilson, 6-0 with 20 saves, 55 innings pitched, 40 hits, 68 K, and 19 walks. When the baseball is put in play, Stetson fields it at a .976 percentage.

On offense, the Hatters are different to be sure. They do not possess a .300 hitter. Junior Mike Spooner is closest at .299 (50-for-167) with three home runs and 30 RBI. As a team, Stetson hits just .252, but their opponents are hitting only .204. The Hatters have no one with double-digits in home runs either. Sophomore, Jorge Arenas leads the team in RBI’s with 35.

Hartford takes a four-game winning streak of their own with them to Stetson. Player of the year in AE, Nick Campana, leads the offensive attack. He is hitting .389, tied for the team lead in home runs with 10, and has driven in 39. Campana slugged it at a .626 percentage and also stole 21 bases in 27 attempts. Keeping him off the basepaths will be priority number one for Stetson.

Olson Jackson is another .300 hitter to keep an eye on. He is hitting .311 with 22 runs batted in and one home run. The Hawks had a team batting average of .270 for the season.

Game one starting pitcher could be Nicholas Dombkowski. His record is 6-5, 2.73 ERA, 85.2 IP, 71 hits allowed, 67 SO, and 25 BB. He is backed up in the rotation by Nathan Florence who was 4-5 with a 3.68 ERA, 87 hits, 33 ER, 87 K’S, and 25 free passes.

Seth Pinkerton is the Hawks closer and had a 2-3 record on the season with 11 saves, 32 IP, 22 hits, and only eight earned runs allowed. He struck out 30 while walking only 12. Pinkerton was tough to take deep this year, yielding only one home runs all year. The pitching staff has a 4.82 ERA as a group, and they did complete four games this season, with Dombkowski having three of them.

Hartford was pretty good with the glove with a .973 fielding pct. on the year.

The other matchup will pit South Florida against Oklahoma State.