America East Baseball News & Notes: Log Jam for Second Place

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The new format for the America East Baseball Tournament is a subject that up until now we have not discussed. But with a month left in the regular season, now is as good a time as any to bring the subject up. Six of the seven league members will make the tournament and make the trip to Binghamton, NY for the playoffs. The top-2 will receive a bye, while the other four will play a win-or-go-home game on the first day of the event. The two winners will then join the two teams that have byes and play a double-elimination format to determine who wins the league championship and with it the automatic bid to the NCAA baseball tournament.

Everyone has nine games left in the conference. The race is on to make the field that will head to Binghamton and play for the tournament title. At the bottom of the list is UAlbany (1-14) who find themselves four games back in the loss column of the UMass Lowell River Hawks (5-10). Lowell sits in the last spot to make the field. The two teams have already met this year with the River Hawks taking two of three from the Great Danes. Lowell has the tie-breaker on UAlbany as the final month gets underway. However, that could change this weekend as the Great Danes will play a non-conference weekend against Wagner College from the Northeast Conference. The River Hawks, on the other hand, will be at home taking on the first-place Maine Black Bears. This will be the second time this season that the two teams have met with the first time being in Oreno, Maine with the Black Bears sweeping the series. Lowell will be looking to avenge that sweep while improving their standing in the league.

Meanwhile, there is a battle brewing for the second spot in the league that would avoid a win or go home game. Bryant and UMBC are tied for second place with 9-6 records. The University of Maryland-Baltimore County comes into this weekend off a three-game sweep of the River Hawks. Good pitching was the story of the series for the Retrievers as Luke Johnson (5-1) threw a complete game 4-hitter in a seven-inning, 5-1 win in game one of a doubleheader. Game two saw Jayden Shertel (3-4) go 8.2 innings allowing five hits and two earned runs in a 4-2 win. On Sunday, the UMBC bats did the work as they would hit four home runs and six XBH overall to sweep the series by a 12-9 score. UMBC has now won four in a row. Bryant was doing the same thing at home vs the Great Danes last weekend. On Friday, they used five XBH including two home runs to take game one 17-11. They also stole four bases to support a 20-hit attack. Austin Wainer, the third Bulldog pitcher of the day, got the win to improve to 3-3. Saturday saw the teams play two with the Bulldogs coming out on top in both games. In game one, the Bulldogs pounded out 13 more hits. Every hitter in the lineup had at least one hit. Brent Wichrowski went 5.1 to pick up his fourth win against one loss. He allowed four hits and one earned run while striking out seven. Despite making three errors in game two, Bryant completed the sweep with a 7-5 win. Derek Smith went 3-for-5 with three RBI and one run scored. He homered in the third, then came up with a 2-run double in the seventh. Matthew Stansky (1-1) went 2.2 IP, four hits, and one unearned run to get the victory. The Bulldogs have won six in a row.

The only team that punched their ticket to Binghamton is the Maine Black Bears at 11-1. Last weekend, they went out of conference to sweep a three-game series from Hartford winning two of those games by one run. The Black Bears lead the league in batting with a .308 average. The team is led by the three-headed monster. Quinn McDaniel has a .390 batting average, nine HR, 30 RBI. 1.280 OPS, 720 slugging, with 53 runs scored. He has stolen 22 bases in 27 attempts, Jeremiah Jenkins has a .374 BA, 14 HR, and 54 RBI. 1.303 OPS, .797 slugging. The home runs and runs batted in lead the league. Connor Goodman is hitting .370, two home runs, and 37 RBI. .936 OPS, .480 slugging. On the mound, Colin Fitzgerald is 4-1, with a 3.97 ERA in 10 games started. He has 56.2 IP, 57 hits, 27 runs, 25 earned runs. Teams are hitting .217 against him.

NJIT has made it to the .500 mark in the league at 6-6. Last weekend they took two of three from the Bearcats at home. Like other teams in the league, the two teams played two on Friday with the Highlanders taking both games. They won game one by a 1-0 score in eight innings. SS Ray Ortiz singled up the middle to score Andrew Etcock with the walk-off run. Ryan Fischer (3-4) won a pitcher’s duel by going the distance allowing seven hits, nine strikeouts, and a season-high zero walks. He was named America East Pitcher of the Week for his performances. In game two, the Highlanders won 4-3 by scoring the winning run in the eighth inning. CF Ty Sallie singled to center field and brought home Brent Helmkamp with the go-ahead run. Grant Vurpillat came out of the NJIT bullpen to throw four innings of four-hit, two-run, one-earned-run baseball. He struck out six and walked one to improve to 1-1. Binghamton did take the final game of the series 7-2.

The America East Player of the Week is Jake Rainess of Maine. The redshirt junior SS slashed .571/.667/.1.500. He hit three home runs, scored eight runs, had a double, and stole 10 bases to help Maine go 4-0 last week. The America East Rookie of the Week is Zac Zyons of Bryant. He slashed .556/.600/.1.111 in a 4-0 week for the Bulldogs. He was 5-for-9 with a home run, triple, five RBI, eight runs scored, and four stolen bases.

As the last month gets underway, the league has its top four teams all above .500 with their overall records. Good news for a conference that is trying to gain a foothold in the Mid-Major landscape. Next week we look back at how this weekend went in the America East Baseball Conference.