America East Baseball News & Notes: Play Ball

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We have waited long enough. College baseball is back. Last weekend, the season got underway for five of the seven teams in the America East Conference. UMBC and UAlbany will begin their season this weekend. While the schedule was light, it was good to see the boys of spring back on the diamond.

The UMass Lowell River Hawks took two of three in the Swing & Swine Classic. They took down Mercyhurst and Ball State before losing the final game of the weekend to Towson. UML got some pretty good pitching from Brian Foley in relief vs Mercyhurst as he went four innings of one-hit, four-strikeout baseball to get the win on opening day. The River Hawks may have also introduced their new closer in the game. Nick DiRito came on in the ninth to throw 15 pitches and have a scoreless inning. America East Player of the Week Brandon Fish got the offense started with a HR. Part of a 3-for-3 day with 2 RBI and a run scored.

Against Ball State, Brendan Holland went 6.2 innings of five-hit, three-earned run baseball to get the win. He had a walk and five strikeouts. He got plenty of help from the bats as UML pounded out 11 hits, four of which were doubles. They busted the game wide open with a 10-run fourth inning on their way to a 12-6 win.

Fish went 6-for-9 with two multi-hit games. He scored four runs and drove in three more, had three doubles, and a home run. He sluggled 1.331% and had a 2.102 OPS. For Fish, this was his first weekly award.

The defending champs, the Bryant College Bulldogs, split two games with Davidson College last weekend. In the opener on Friday, Bryant rode a two home run and five RBI effort from Brandyn Durand to go along with solid relief pitching from Kyle Rizy (2.2 IP, 1H, 3BB, 5 SO) to get the win. Jackson Vanesko pitched a perfect ninth for the save. Durand hit a two-run HR in the second, then a 3-run HR in the 3rd to supply the offense.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs got an outstanding start from freshman RHP Michael Belcher. He threw four innings in his first college start striking out the first six batters he faced. He would have seven strikeouts overall, and throw 50 pitches in his outing allowing zero hits, and no walks. Bryant would lose the game in walk-off fashion as Ey Brooks, in relief, would hit a batter with the bases loaded to give Davidson the 3-2 win. Belcher’s outing was the best by a Bryant freshman since James Karinchak struck out 10 in a seven-inning start vs Towson on March 9, 2015. His outing earned him America East Pitcher & Rookie of the Week.

For Maine, Binghamton, and NJIT the first weekend did not go so well. NJIT was swept by High Point as the pitching staff allowed 34 runs in the three-game series. Maine also was swept by Louisiana Tech. The good news for the Black Bears was that members of last year’s team who were sidelined with season-ending injuries are back for head coach Nick Duba. The Bearcats lost three games to Texas State University. In Saturday’s game, catcher Evin Sullivan went 3-for-5 with six RBI and one run scored. He hit a grand slam HR in 5th to at the time give the Bearcats a 6-5 lead. He also had RBI singles in the first and ninth innings.

Every team is in action this coming weekend. Next week we will see how they do.