America East Baseball: Three Named Collegiate Newspaper All-Americans

Read Time:2 Minute, 31 Second

While the college baseball season has ended for teams in the America East Conference, awards for some of the players in the league have not stopped. Three players have been chosen as part of the 2023 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-American Honor. Two of the players are from the regular season and tournament champion Maine Black Bears. While the other is from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Jeremiah Jenkins and Gianni Gambardella from the Black Bears and Leewood Molessa of the Retrievers were honored by this newspaper.

Jenkins had a breakout season for the Black Bears. He was named third-team Collegiate Baseball All-American. His numbers of .378 BA, 20 HRs, and 75 RBI speak loudly about the kind of year he had. The 20 bombs led the league, and so too did the 75 runs batted in. Of his 71 total hits, 33 were for extra bases. He scored 52 runs on the year and struck out 39 times in 188 at-bats while walking 39 times. Several of those walks were of the intentional variety. Jenkins was also hit by pitch 14 times as opposing pitchers decided that putting him on base was a better move than trying to pitch to him and maybe watch him leave the yard. His .378 batting average may also have something to do with pitchers thinking twice about dealing with him. In the Coral Gables Regional, Jenkins went deep once vs Louisiana Tech. As a first baseman, Jenkins was very good around the bag. His fielding percentage was .993% and he had 434 total putouts.

Gianni Gambardella has seen his name on a fair share of honors lists lately. Before the regionals took place, he was named to the first team All-America East team as well as the All-Rookie team. Gambardella can now add Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American to his resume. His work out of the bullpen, as well as a spot starter, became a valuable asset for the Black Bears as the season moved along. He posted a 6-3 record with a 2.91 ERA. He also picked up a pair of saves as Maine closer. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was very good in his first year as a college pitcher. Gambardella struck out 42 batters while walking only 13 in 52.2 innings pitched.

If it were not for being in the same league with Jenkins, UMBC’s Molessa may have received more attention for the season he had than he did. The Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American was a second-team All-America East selection and league Rookie of the Year. He put together a solid first year for the Retrievers. Molessa batted .294 with 16 home runs and 66 runs batted in. He also smacked 15 doubles As with any slugger, strikeouts are par for the course. Molessa did lead the league with 78 and also led in at-bats with 228. In the field, Molessa had a fielding percentage of .995% with 390 total putouts.