America East Baseball News & Notes: The Final Weekend

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The final weekend of play has arrived. The six teams that will compete for the America East Baseball Championship are set. UMass Lowell’s sweep of Maryland-Baltimore County last weekend means Stony Brook, Binghamton, UAlbany, Hartford, and Maine will join the River Hawks in Binghamton, N.Y. next week. They will be playing for the trophy and the automatic bid to the NCAA field of 64. This weekend’s schedule is for seeding purposes only. Lowell (10-11) at Stony Brook (14-7), Hartford (11-10) at UAlbany (11-9), and Binghamton (10-8) at Maine (10-10).

There are Co-Players of the week. First is River Hawks infielder Oscar Menchena. The redshirt senior had a slash line of .500/.500/.583 in the sweep of the Retrievers last weekend that sent the River Hawks to the championship. He drove in four runs and scored a pair in the final two games. Marchena has put up solid numbers for coach Ken Harring this season. He is fourth in Batting Average at .345, second in Hits with 59 and eighth in RBI with 34. In the field, Marchena has helped turn 19 double plays as a middle infielder. This is his first weekly honor.

The other Co-Player is Chris Hamilton of Stony Brook. The junior first baseman slashed .571/.556/.714 in a pair of non-conference wins versus Wagner over the weekend. Hamilton tallied a pair of RBI in both games, including a game-winning sacrifice fly in game two on Saturday. Hamilton is fifth in Hits with 54, fourth in RBI with 37, seventh in Doubles at 13, and Home Runs with six. The Stony Brook infielder has turned 25 double plays this season. Hamilton has been on the back end of all of them. It’s the first weekly award this season for Hamilton.

Pitcher of the Week is Dominic Savino of UAlbany. He threw a complete game in the series opener against Binghamton last Saturday. He allowed four hits, zero walks, and struck out five to get the win. Savino is third in ERA, second in Opposing Batting Average at ..232, sixth in Innings Pitched with 65, ninth in Strikeouts and fifth in Batters Strike Outs Looking with 18. It’s also the first weekly award this season for Savino.

Rookie of the week is Ryan Turenne of Maine. The freshman catcher had four hits in ten at-bats against Hartford last weekend. He scored a pair of runs in game one of a Saturday doubleheader. This is Turenne’s second consecutive weekly award.

Alex Baratta of the Bearcats leads the league in Batting with a .379 average. He is second in On-Base Percentage at 0.448 and is tenth in Runs Batting In with 30.

The Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers will not make the post-season this year. However, their closer is having a pretty good season. Stephen Schoch, the red-shirt junior, leads his pitching staff in Wins with five, Saves with three, Strikeouts with 58, and ERA at 3.59.

Next week it’s tournament time, and NGSC sports will have the lowdown as we are on the road to Binghamton.