CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- UMBC senior outfielder Joe Fowler (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark's) batted in 10 runs last week en route to being named the America East Baseball Player of the Week. Also receiving awards for the week ending March 9 are Vermont junior lefty Joe Serafin (Tariffville, Conn./Simsbury) receiving the Pitcher of the Week and Stony Brook's freshman third baseman Nick Thode (Huntington Station, N.Y./Whitman) earning the rookie honor.
Fowler batted .562 in four games last week, including wins over Delaware and Navy. Fowler, who started all four games, tallied two home runs on the week, including the game-winning two-run shot against Delaware in the eighth and another two-run homer in the ninth against Manhattan. Fowler also tallied a team-high 10 RBI during the Retrievers' games last week.
Serafin returned to form after a redshirt year last season, picking up his first win since May 2006. The lefty hurled seven scoreless innings to defeat Central Michigan in Bradenton, Fla. Sunday. Serafin allowed only six hits and one walk while striking out eight batters. Just two Chippewa runners reached second base and only one reached third during his seven innings. Serafin now has 13 strikeouts in 11 innings to start the 2008 season.
Rookie Thode went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI in the Seawolves' 7-5 victory over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday afternoon. He also went 2-for-5 with two RBI in the 5-3 victory over the Lions on Sunday. Thode hit a double and came around to score two runs, while striking out just once in 12 plate appearances.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (3-7 overall record, 0-0 in America East) went 1-2 in a weekend
series at Furman at Furman
Stadium in Greenville,
S.C... Opened the series with a 12-1 loss on Saturday, March 8...
Sophomore Brendan Rowland (Albany,
N.Y./Colonie Central) went 2-for-4 and scored the Great Danes’ lone run... On Sunday,
March 9, the Great Danes lost a 5-2 decision in the first game of a
doubleheader, but rebounded to take the nightcap 6-3... After falling behind 4-0
through five innings, senior first baseman Mike Konstanty (Oneonta, N.Y./Oneonta/Winthrop)
narrowed the gap with a solo home run to right field... In the nightcap, the
Great Danes won the series-finale 6-3... UAlbany jumped on the board with two
runs in the top of the first inning... Following consecutive singles by Gary
Pitcheralle (Mechanicville, N.Y./Mechanicville/Alfred State) and Dave West (Toms
River, N.J./Toms River North), a failed pickoff attempt of West at first
allowed Pitcheralle to score from second... Konstanty put the Great Danes up 3-2
in the fourth with his second solo home run of the day... UAlbany took the lead
for good in the fifth inning on an RBI single by West to score freshman second
baseman Kyle Crean (Miller Place,
N.Y./Miller Place)... The Great Danes added two insurance runs in the seventh
inning on run-scoring hits by Rowland and West... Junior right-hander Josh
Willimott (East Greenbush, N.Y./Columbia)
earned his second straight win by pitching five innings, striking out three
batters... Junior southpaw Dave Noble (Bronx, N.Y./Regis/St. Francis (N.Y.))
registered his first save by pitching four scoreless innings.
Binghamton (3-7, 0-0 AE) went 1-2 in its
weekend series at Longwood, narrowly missing a series sweep with a pair of
one-run losses that were the product of two bad innings. The Bearcats surrendered six runs in one
inning of the opening 6-5 loss, and gave up four runs in another inning of the
4-3 defeat in game 2... Sophomore starter Murphy Smith (Clifton Park,
N.Y./Shenendehowa) pitched seven strong innings in the finale, steering
Binghamton to an 8-3 win. Smith struck
out six, walked none and allowed just one run on five hits. In three appearances this spring, he has a
2.65 ERA... Senior third baseman Ryan James (Wading River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading
River) hit .500 in the series (6-for-12) and drove in three runs... Junior
shortstop Kyle Klee (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit) hit his second home run of
the season -- a two-run shot on Sunday -- and also drove in three runs in the
three games. He leads the team with a
.324 average and seven RBI after 10 games... Freshmen outfielders Corey Taylor
(Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) and Peter Bregartner (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip) each
batted .417 (5-for-12) in the series.
Taylor was 2-for-2 in stolen bases and drove in three runs, while Bregartner
raised his season average to .294 -- second on the team.
The Hawks (1-1, 0-0 AE) opened the season splitting a pair
of games in what was supposed to be a four-game swing through Pennsylvania.
Hartford opened the new season with a 2-1 extra inning loss to Villanova on
Friday on a rain soaked field. The Hawks were led in that game by senior Bill Perry (East Falmouth,
Mass/Falmouth) who finished 3-of-4 with an RBI. Hartford then came out to
record an 11-6 victory over the La Salle Explorers on Sunday. The Hawks trailed
going into the eighth inning but put up back-to-back three run innings to
secure the first victory of the season. Five different players recorded
multiple hits in the game with Brady
Stouffer (Gaithersburg, Md./Northwest) leading the team with a perfect
4-of-4 effort at the plate, while scoring four runs and knocking in two. Drew Sgro Bristol, Conn./Bristol
Central/Siena) also hit well with a 2-of-3 effort at the plate, while knocking
in five runs. He finished with at least one RBI in each of the four Hartford
scoring innings, including driving in two during a three run eighth inning to
put the Hawks ahead for good. Also with a multi RBI game was Ben Sobocinski Waldorf, Md./McDonough)
with a two on a 2-of-4 showing at the plate.
The
University of Maine baseball team (5-7, 0-0 AE) went 1-4 on the week...
Two of Maine’s five losses came in extra innings as the Black Bears fell to
Notre Dame 11-10 in 10 innings and Air Force 3-1 in 10 innings... Maine was led
by Myckie Lugbauer (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac), who hit .421 with three runs scored
and six RBI... Lugbauer has a hit in all 12 games for the Black Bears this
season, the lone Maine player to do so... Maine belted five home runs on the week
to bring its season total to 14... Maine
is out-homering its opponents 14-6 this season... Curt Smith (Willemstad,
Curacao/Peter Stuyvesant) has seven multi-hit games on the season... Maine’s Joe Miller (Valley Stream,
N.Y./Valley Stream) pitched eight innings against Ohio State on Saturday night
allowed six runs, four of which were earned, on six hits... Three of the runs
that he allowed came in the eighth inning... Maine will face Miami on Wednesday
night in Miami, Fla.... After that, Maine will travel to Annapolis, Md., where
the Black Bears will play three games including one against Navy and former
Maine head coach Paul Kostacopoulos.
UMBC (1-2, 0-0 AE) went 2-2 in
competition last week as they won games at Delaware
and Navy during the week and fell to Manhattan
in a doubleheader on Sunday... The Retrievers’ started the week off with a
come-from-behind, 12-11 win, over the Blue Hens on Tuesday thanks to senior Joe
Fowler’s (Wilmington, Del./St. Mark’s) game-winning two-run home
run in the eighth and then tallied a season-high 19 hits in an 18-6 decision
over Navy, which saw Fowler and junior Brad Brainer (Chester, Md./Kent
Island/Chesapeake JC) tally the season’s first triples for the Retrievers and
saw junior Dan Blewett (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) earn his first win since 2005...
After two days of postponements, the Retrievers finally hosted Manhattan in a
doubleheader on Sunday, falling, 14-7 in a nine-inning game one, and 4-3, in a
seven-inning game two... Junior Tom Meaney led the Retrievers in game one, going
4-for-5 with a home run, two runs scored, and two RBI, while Fowler also
tallied his second home run of the week in the 14-7 loss... The Retrievers embark
on a nine-game road trip as they travel to Towson
on Tuesday for a 3:00 p.m. game, Georgetown on
Wednesday for a 2:30 p.m. contest and will be in Bradenton, Fla.
From March 14-22 for spring training where they will play the likes of Eastern
Kentucky, Bradley, St. Louis, Illinois,
Central Connecticut, and Kansas.
The
Seawolves (4-2, 0-0 AE) took two of three from Southeastern Louisiana over the weekend ... The Seawolves fell behind 2-0 in game one of the
doubleheader on Saturday but came back with four runs in the sixth ... Freshman
Chad Marshall and junior Chad Rebecca reached to begin the inning to bring up
sophomore Mike Stephan who laid down a sacrifice bunt that the Lions
mishandled, allowing Marshall to score ... Thode then came up and laced a double
to center to score Stephan and Marshall, giving SBU a 3-2 lead. Nowak followed
with a single down the right-field line to score Thode and give Stony Brook a
two-run advantage. Mazzurco extended the Seawolves lead in the eighth with a
two-run double and then came around to score on a Marshall RBI groundout that
put SBU up 7-2 as the Seawolves went on to the 7-5 victory ... senior Tom
Koehler allowed just four hits in 7.1
innings to pick up the victory ... The Seawolves fell 2-1 in the game two as Ty
Summerlin hit a walk-off single with one out in the ninth inning to give the
Lions the victory ... Gary Novakowski went the distance for the Seawolves,
allowing just two runs in 8.1 innings ... Junior Mike Errigo struck out a
career-high 10 in 6.1 innings to pick up the victory and junior Jeremy Nowak
went 2-for-5 with two RBI to lead the Seawolves to a 5-3 victory over the Lions
on Sunday afternoon.
Vermont (1-4, 0-0 AE) split a pair of games to open its
annual spring break trip to Bradenton, Fla. ... UVM blasted Central Michigan,
14-1, Sunday for its first win of the season ... The Catamounts 14 runs against
the Mid American Conference Chippewas was the team’s highest scoring game in 61
games going back to May of 2006 ... Junior LHP Joe Serafin (Tariffville, Conn./Simsbury, Conn.) hurled seven
scoreless innings to pick up the win against Central Michigan allowing six
hits, one walk and had eight strikeouts ... A first team, all-cnference
selection in 2006, Serafin missed all but one game a year ago ... Another
redshirt last season, senior IF/OF Miguel Magrass (West Roxbury,
Mass./Salisbury), had a strong weekend hitting .556 with six RBI. Magrass hit
Vermont’s first homer of the season, a three-run shot, against Central Michigan
... Magrass is off to a .316 start this season with a team-high eight RBI. He
drove in his 100th career run Sunday against Eastern Illinois ... Freshmen Matt Duffy (Milton, Mass./St.
Sebatian’s) and Mark Micowski
(Haddam, Conn./Xavier) had solid weekends down south ... Duffy, who has hit
safely in his first five games, hit .364 with four RBI ... Micowski reached
base by hit or a walk six times in 11 plate appearances, stole a base and
scored four runs. He has a .478 on base percentage through five games ...
Sophomore Ethan Paquette (West
Burke, Vt./St. Johnsbury Academy) hit .500 with 4 RBI. He leads the Cats with a
.353 average ... UVM continues its week in Florida with five games through
Saturday.