Final Month Begins: America East Baseball News & Notes

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Final Month Begins

The final month of the America East Baseball conference season begins this weekend. The Stony Brook Seawolves have become the first team to clinch a post-season berth in the America East tournament. They did this by taking two out of three from Maryland-Baltimore County last weekend. Here is the schedule for this weekend set of games. Binghamton (8-6), is fresh off a weekend sweep at home vs Hartford. They travel to UMBC (6-12). Hartford (7-8), coming off that tough weekend in Binghamton, look to rebound when they play host to UMass Lowell (6-9). It will be a big series for these two teams as they are only separated by a game in the standings. Stony Brook (13-5), looks to keep things going in the right direction when they head to Maine (7-7). Albany has the weekend off from league play.

The Player of the Week is senior infielder Travis Collins of UAlbany. Collins had himself quite a week for the Great Danes. In a 4-1 week, Collins slash line of .632/ .682/ .947 was a big reason why. In their series win over Maine, Collins went 8-for-11 at the plate, with five RBI’s and four runs scored. This is Collins first career award.

The Pitcher of the Week is senior, Nick Gallagher of Binghamton. In their series sweep of Hartford, Gallagher tossed six scoreless innings in the first game of that set last Saturday. He allowed just two hits while punching out five Hawks batters. Gallagher is now fifth in innings pitched with 54, and fifth in batters SO looking. This is his first Pitcher of the Week award this season and third of his career.

The Rookie of the Week is Thomas Babalis of the Bear Cats. He got the ball for game three of the weekend vs the Hawks. Thomas threw six scoreless innings, surrendered only two hits while striking out five. Babalis is now tenth in earned run average at 3.41 and ninth in opposing batting average at .226. This is his second consecutive rookie of the week award.

One reason why Stony Brook has been at the top in team batting race is the hot bat of Branden Alamo. He leads the conference in doubles with 18, is seventh in hit by pitch with seven, seventh in sac flies with four, and fifth in sac bunts with five. Alamo’s batting average of .353 has him fourth in the batting chase. He is eighth in hits with 47 and third in on-base percentage at 0.435.

If River Hawks pitchers are to have any success this weekend in Hartford, keeping Ashton Bardzell in check would be a priority. He is tied for the lead in home runs with seven, second in walks with 25, second in triples with four, and eighth in doubles with eleven. Bardzell is fourth in strikeouts with 40, not usual for a power hitter. He is sixth in runs batted in with 33 and tenth in runs scored with 28.

Blaze O’Saben, of Maryland-Baltimore County, is fifth in triples with three, fourth in at-bats with 154, second in stolen bases with 24, and fifth in sacrifice bunts with five. Stony Brook hurlers will need to keep him off the bases.

Cody Laweryson, of Maine, leads the league in earned run average at 1.12, he is seventh in opposing batting average at .218, ninth in innings pitch at 46, tenth in batters striking out looking with eleven, and sixth in wins with four.

Let’s see how it all turns out in this final month.