Maine's Curt Smith (Willemstad, Curacao/Stuyvesant) and Hartford's Ben Sobocinski (Waldorf, Md./McDonough) have been named America East Co-Players of the Week. Smith's teammate Brad Hertzler (Westport, Mass./CCRI) shares America East Co-Pitcher of the Week with Stony Brook's Gary Novakowski (Prospect, Conn./Holy Cross). Maine's Kevin Jackson (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) receives America East Rookie of the Week. The awards were announced Monday (May 7).
Smith led Maine to a 3-2 week, including three key America East wins over Vermont. The junior third baseman batted .500 with five runs scored and a team-high 10 RBI. Smith had a hit in all five games on the week. He had a productive game in the second game of the day on Saturday going 3-for-3 with a run scored and six RBI. Smith cracked a three-run home run in the game and hit for a .700 slugging percentage on the week.
Sobocinski led the Hawks yo a 3-3 record, including a pair of wins over Albany. The sophomore infielde finished with 12 hits in 24 at bats for a .500 batting average on the week. Sobocinski finished with six RBI, second most on the team last week. His best game of the week came at Dartmouth where he finished with three hits in four at bats and added four RBI, tying a season high for all Hartford players this year. He also added two RBI on a triple in the opening game of the series against Albany. On the doubleheader day, Sobocinski finished with five hits in seven at bats, and currently has at least one hit in his last seven games.
Hertzler started Maine’s midweek game against Southern Maine where he was scheduled to pitch just one inning. He allowed one hit while fanning one. The junior hurler followed that up by tossing a complete-game two-hit shutout in a win over Vermont. Hertzler fanned eight batters in the game against the Catamounts. Opponents had a .107 batting average against Hertzler on the week.
Novakowski had his bid for his first career no-hitter broken up with two outs in the seventh inning. He shutdown the Binghamton bats all day, allowing only one hit and one unearned run as he knotched his fourth win of the year. Novakowski has been productive in conference games, as he is a perfect 4-0 with a miniscule 1.48 ERA.
Jackson had a hit in all five games on the week. The freshman outfielder had a pair of hits on Friday. He Was 2-for-4 in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday with a run scored and an RBI and scored a pair of runs in the second game on Saturday.
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTEBOOKS
Albany Great Danes
UAlbany (20-23, 7-9 America East) dropped a non-conference decision to Marist on Tuesday before splitting a four-game America East Conference series with Hartford over the weekend... The Great Danes won Friday’s opener, 7-3, before splitting Saturday’s doubleheader with a 3-2 loss in the first game and a 6-3 win in the nightcap... Hartford evened the series with a 3-2 victory in 11 innings on Sunday... Senior third baseman Steve Wyland (Stratford, N.J./Sterling) led the team with a .474 average, finishing with nine hits, five runs scored and four RBI... Sophomore centerfielder Dave West (Toms River, N.J./Tomes River North) hit .409, also recording nine hits, scoring four runs and driving in two more... Senior first baseman Steve Sayre (East Greenbush, N.Y./Columbia) led the team with five RBI off five hits... Senior right-hander John Naples (Troy, N.Y./Catholic Central) went 7.1 innings for the Great Danes in the series’ opening win over Hartford... Naples struck out six in a no-decision performance... Sophomore Sean Gregory (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) made four appearances for UAlbany out of the bullpen, recording his second save of the season in Friday’s win over Hartford... The Great Danes will visit Manhattan for a non-conference game on Tuesday and will host UMBC in America East action over the weekend.
Binghamton Bearcats
Binghamton (21-15, 15-4 America East) went 2-3 on the week, dropping a non-conference game at Le Moyne before splitting a four-game set with Stony Brook... With the two America East victories, first-place Binghamton clinched a berth in the upcoming conference tournament... It will be the program's second appearance in the last three years... The Bearcats have a three-game lead over Stony Brook in the standings with four games remaining... In the Stony Brook series, the Bearcats won the opener and the final contest and dropped the middle doubleheader... The pitching staff held down a 1.97 ERA in the series... Junior pitcher Zach Groh (Reading, Pa./The Perkiomen School) didn't allow a run in seven strong innings on Friday... Groh improved to 4-0 with a 2.31 ERA against America East opponents... He also stretched his strikeout-to-walk ratio to a remarkable 44-to-7 in league play... He is 5-1 with a 3.62 overall this spring... Senior pitcher Mike Van Gorder (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) allowed just two earned runs in his win on Sunday, and is 5-2 overall with a team-best 2.34 ERA... Junior closer Khalid Afify (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton/Broome CC) recorded his fifth save of the season, tying the school record in that category... Afify has yet to allow a run in conference play (8.0 innings) and is 3-0 with three saves in league play... Junior third baseman Ryan James (Wading River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) had a strong week at the plate, hitting .429 with eight RBI in the four games... James, who ranks 11th in the country in sacrifices, went 3-for-5 with five RBI against Le Moyne.
Hartford Hawks
Hartford (12-30, 8-11 America East) finished a six-game week with a 3-3 overall record last week... The Hawks began the week with an 8-5 win at Dartmouth in the first of two mid-week tune-ups. The Hawks then dropped its second mid-week game against Fairfield by an 11-13 score in the first of 14-straight home games... Hartford then split a four-game conference series winning the second and fourth game by 3-2 scores, the later of which in 11 innings. For the week, Ben Sobocinski (Waldorf, MD/McDonough) led the Hawks with a .500 batting average. He finished with 12 hits in 24 at bats, while recording six RBI, second most on the team. Ryan Crowley (Plainville, CT/Plainville) finished the week with seven RBI, leading the team... Sobocinski had his best outing of the week in the double header with five hits in seven at bats... Bill Perry (East Falmouth, MA/Falmouth) also had a hot week with seven hits in 19 at bats... Five of his seven hits went for doubles. He also added four RBI.
Maine Black Bears
Maine (17-26, 8-8 America East) went 3-2 on the week, including taking three of four games from Vermont... Maine was led by Curt Smith (Willemstad, Curacao/Peter Stuyvesant) who batted .500 on the week with five runs scored and 10 RBI... He was 3-for-3 in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday where he had six RBI, including a three-run home run... Matt McGraw (Burlington, Ontario/Nelson) stole five bases in the doubleheader on Saturday and leads the team with 17 steals on the season... Brad Hertzler (Westport, Mass./CCRI) pitched an outstanding game on Saturday in the first game of the doubleheader... He pitched a complete game two-hit shutout and fanned eight batters... Alejandro Balsinde (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) was impressive on Sunday as he pitched a nine-inning complete game allowing just one unearned run... It was his third complete game of the season with two being nine-inning complete games... Balsinde has gone at least seven inning in each of his five starts this season... Joel Barrett (Brewer, Maine/Brewer) had an impressive week as well... He moves into second place on Maine's all-time hits list and currently has 268 career hits... He also moves into second place tie on Maine's all-time doubles list with 58... He played in his 200th career game in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday... Greg Norton (South Portland, Maine/South Portland) moved into a tied with Mike MacDonald (2001?04) for fourth place on Maine's all-time wins list with 25 on Saturday.
UMBC Retrievers
UMBC (11-32, 2-14 America East) took a week off from conference play, hosting non-conference opponent Delaware on Tuesday night and traveling to Lafayette for a three-game weekend series... The Retrievers lost a close one, 5-4, to Delaware, and split Saturday’s doubleheader against Lafayette, losing the first contest, 3-2, but coming back to win the second, 4-3 in 10 innings... The Retrievers also dropped the series finale to the Leopards, 9-1, on Sunday... Junior Mark Lemon (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s) led the Retrievers on the week, batting .500 (7-for-14) while recording a double, his first triple of the year, and three RBI... Junior Will Delawter (Frederick, Md./Chesapeake JC) batted in the winning run for the Retrievers on Saturday, with a single through the left side that plated senior Steve Bowen (Pasadena, Md./Catonsville C.C.) in the 10th inning... The Retrievers host Towson on Tuesday night before traveling to New York to face Albany in a four-game conference series from May 11-13.
Stony Brook Seawolves
Stony Brook (24-20, 10-5 America East) went 2-3 over the week... After dropping a non-conference game to Iona on Tuesday, the Seawolves spit a four-game set with first place Binghamton... In the doubleheader sweep of Binghamton on Saturday, the Seawolves benefitted from dominant pitching... Gary Novakowski (Prospect, Conn.) had a no hitter through 6.2 innings in Game 1 before surrendering a hit as the Seawolves won 3-1... In Game 2, Jon Kalkau (Bellmore, N.Y.) improved to a perfect 6-0 on the year as he threw the Seawovles second-straight complete game on the day... Kalkau only allowed one run off of four hits in the complete-game win... Rob Leonard (Wantagh, NY) continued his stellar America East play as the senior hit .533 over the weekend versus Binghamton... Leonard leads the Seawolevs with a .415 batting average in conference play and has tallied 14 RBI... After a weekend series in which he drew a walk and was hit by a pitch, Michael Stephan (Patchogue-Medford, NY) leads the Seawolves with 23 walks on the year and has been hit by 16 pitches this year... The redshirt freshman now has a team-best .522 on base percentage.
Vermont Catamounts
Vermont (19-22, 8-7 America East) dropped four out of five last week including three of four at Maine... Vermont hitters had a .223 average for the week scoring only eight runs in five games... Bryan Rembisz (Clinton, Conn./Westbrook) had an exceptional week at the plate and on the mound. The senior 2B/RHP hit .471 in five games bolstered by going 7-for-13 (.538) in the four-game series at Maine... Friday night he topped Maine with a nine-inning complete game win striking out 13 hitters allowing only two unearned runs. He also went 3-for-3 with 2 runs scored... Rembisz, who has struck out 70 and walked only 10 this season in 57.1 innings, moved into second place at UVM with 228 career strikeouts... He also is second at Vermont in career appearances (63) and third in innings pitched (233)... Last week Rembisz also was named to the Clemens Award watch list as a nominee for national pitcher of the year one of two from America East on the initial ballot... Jim Chapman (Bourne, Mass./Kent’s Hill) is now fourth all-time at UVM in games played with 178. He also is just shy of the UVM top ten in career hits with 172... The Catamounts stole six bases in seven attempts against Maine and now have 48 steals this season, a big improvement over 2006 when they stole 31 in 53 games... Vermont is Stony Brook for a four-game series next weekend.