America East Baseball News & Notes First Month in the Books

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As we turn the page and begin month number two of baseball in America East, an interesting development has started to take shape. Since the league has been split up into two divisions, one had a good finish to the month of March, and the other not so much. Division B has all four teams with a winning streak heading into their series this upcoming weekend. While Division A has every team with losing streaks. Since only eight teams are playing ball in this league, things like this can happen. This is not to mean that one division is better than the other Instead this just shows how quirky things can be. Let’s see how things are going in America East baseball.

The hottest team in the league right now is the Stony Brook Seawolves. They have won eight in a row after sweeping up on Hartford last weekend. Stony Brook is the only team in the conference with an unblemished record at 8-0 in league play. They already look like a sure bet to be a part of the conference tournament that will be played in late May. Given that only four teams will be playing in that event, locking up a spot now will make preparing for it a bit easier for the team and coaching staff. Not surprisingly, the Seawolves lead the conference in pitching with an overall ERA of 3.52. In nineteen games played, the staff already has two shutouts to their credit. Opposing teams are hitting just .227 against them which is second-best in the league. The Seawolves will look to keep things rolling this weekend on the road at Lowell.

The leaders of Division A are the Hartford Hawks. At 6-6 in league play, they hold a one-game lead over the Riverhawks heading into the weekend. In the overall team stats, the Hawks find themselves in the middle of the pack. On offense, the team is being led by a couple of players. John Thrasher has started every game so far for Hartford. He is hitting .395 in the twelve games played with seven of his seventeen hits for extra bases. He also is a perfect 13 for 13 in stolen base attempts. His running mate is Devin Kellogg. Despite making only four starts in eight games played, Kellogg has made the most of his time in games hitting .400 with five of his six hits for extra bases. Kellogg has become a nice addition to the lineup. On the mound, Tim Blaisdell is doing just fine , thank you. He has a 2-0 record with a 2.50 ERA in three starts. eight hits allowed in 18 innings, five earned runs allowed with hitters batting only .131 against him.

Pitching was the name of the game last weekend. Six hurlers tossed seven innings of shutout baseball over last weekend. Four of those outings took place on Friday alone. One of those performances is this week’s America East Pitcher of the Week. Right-hander, Nicholas Sinacola of Maine, recorded his second straight strong outing for the Black Bears. He would go seven-shutout innings versus Binghamton allowing three hits and only two walks. He fanned 15 hitters and in his last two starts, Sinacloa has struck out 31 hitters. He leads the nation with 18.23 strikeouts per nine innings.

The Player of the Week is Brad Malm of Albany. In a four-game set at home with UMBC, Malm had a slash line of .625/..647/.1.000. He knocked in six runs and scored seven times. His slugging of 1.000 was based on Malm hitting three doubles and a home run. This is his first career weekly award.

The Rookie of the Week is Tommy Reifler of Binghamton. In the series win over Maine, Reifler hit .545 and had a .615 on-base during the series. He scored a couple of runs in the second game of last Friday’s doubleheader while also driving in a run. This is Tommy’s first weekly award.

That’s it for this week. We will be back next week with more news from America East Baseball.