America East Baseball News & Notes

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Last weekend saw Binghamton, Hartford, and Stony Brook all win their series in league play. However, the best baseball of the week was played by Maryland-Baltimore County who stepped out of conference to play six non-league games and won all six. They defeated Coppin State, George Washington, and Mount St. Mary’s in a four-game weekend sweep. Despite being in last place in America East at one and five, the winning streak does give UMBC and above .500 record at 12-11. One of two teams that can make that claim.

This weekend’s schedule has Stony Brook (6-0) on the road at Hartford (4-2) and its a rematch of last year championship. UMass Lowell (3-3) is at home to face Albany (3-2) and Maine (1-4) will host Maryland-Baltimore County (1-5). Binghamton has the weekend off from league play.

There are Co-Players of the Week, First, there is Sean Trenholm of Binghamton. The senior outfielder hit .500 with eight runs batted in, and five runs scored in a 2-2 week for the Bearcats. Seven of the eight RBI’s were driven in during the weekend three-game set vs Albany. The Bearcats wound up taking two of three from the Great Danes. This is Trenholm’s first career weekly honor.

The other Player of the Week is Terrence Pinkston of Maryland-Baltimore County. The senior OF hit .577 with ten runs scored and nine driven in during the six-game winning streak for the Retrievers. Pinkston slugged 1.077 with three home runs and five doubles. The award was his first career honor. Pinkston leads in a couple of different offense categories. He leads in doubles with ten, stolen bases with 12, on-base percentages at 0,500. and in runs scored at 25. He is second in batting average at .393, second in hits 33, and 3rd in slugging at .619.

The Pitcher of the Week is Hartford sophomore LHP Nickolas Dombkowski. In one of the better pitching performances to date, Dombkowski dominated the UMass Lowell River Hawks. In seven innings, he gave up three hits, one walk, and struck out a career-high eleven hitters. He threw 103 pitches, 71 for strikers. Nickolas never faced more than four batters in any inning he worked. It was the Hawks first shutout of the season. Dombkowski now leads the staff in strikeouts with 46, (second in the league), and is tied for league lead with twelve strikes outs looking. It is the second Pitcher of the Week award and the third of his career.

The Rookie of the Week is Tanner Esposito of UMBC. The freshman RHP threw six innings in the win over Coppin State. He struck out seven, walked only one, and gave up one run. It is the first career award for Esposito.

River Hawks shortstop Oscar Marchena came into the pair or mid-week games leading the league in at-bats with 101. He leads the team in hits with 25, batting average at .291, and runs batted in with 16.

Stony Brook leads the league in team batting average at .286, and in home runs with 22. They are also the best fielding team in the league at 0.980 (15 errors in 769 total chances). They have turned eleven double plays and have only two passed balls to their credit. They have thrown out eleven of thirty would be base stealers (732%).