CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Two of the conference's baseball weekly award winners hail from the Stony Brook baseball team who have vaulted into first-place in the America East standings after the first week of league play. Stony Brook's sophomore outfielder Jeremy Nowak (Cheektowaga, N.Y./Cheektowaga) and junior righty Mike Errigo (Bayside, N.Y./Benjamin F. Cardozo) earned the player and pitcher of the week, respectively, for the week ending April 6. Maine freshman third baseman Jarrett Lukas (Old Town, Maine/Old Town) took home the rookie award this week. Click here for the full Weekly Release in PDF.
Nowak became the third consecutive Seawolf to earn the weekly honor, slugging 1.000 on the week. He went 3-for-5 with four RBI in Stony Brook’s 11-9 win over Binghamton on Saturday. The sophomore then went 3-for-4 with a run scored in the 5-2 victory. He also had two hits and two RBI against Hofstra in a midweek contest. Nowak hit .588 for the week with four doubles, a homer and eight RBI.
Errigo finished the week with a stellar 0.00 ERA. In his only appearance of the week, the righty went 8.2 innings against league-rival Binghamton without allowing an earned run and striking out seven batters. Errigo allowed just seven hits, while walking four Bearcats, to earn the win in the 5-2 decision. Errigo is a member of a Stony Brook pitching staff boasting a league-best 4.86 ERA.
Lukas led Maine to three straight victories with a .583 batting average on the week. The rookie had one of Maine’s two hits in a 0-0 five-inning tie with NYIT on Friday, while also making an outstanding defensive play at third base with the bases loaded to keep the game scoreless. Lukas had a career-high four-hit game on Sunday against NJIT, belting his first career triple and driving in four RBI.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (5-22-1 overall record, 1-3 record in America East) went 1-3 last week... The Great Danes opened the week with an 11-10 loss to Hartford in their home and America East opener in the first game of a doubleheader on April 5 at Varsity Field... Sophomore Brendan Rowland (Albany, N.Y./Colonie Central) went 5-for-6 with two home runs, three RBI and four runs scored in the contest... Hartford took the nightcap, 12-5, in seven innings... Junior Ryan Gugel (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia/Genesee C.C.) led UAlbany with two hits, including a two-run double in the first inning to put the Great Danes up 2-0... On Sunday, April 6, the Great Danes snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 6-2 seven-inning win over Hartford.... Josh Willimott (East Greenbush, N.Y./Columbia) pitched into the seventh inning to record his team-high third win of the season... After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, Willimott shut the Hawks out the rest of the way and held them hitless after the second inning... UAlbany tied the game at two in the third inning and scored four times in the fifth for the win... Senior Mike Konstanty (Oneonta, N.Y./Oneonta/Winthrop) singled through the left side to plate the eventual winning runs... In the nightcap, the Hawks scored an unearned run with two outs in the eighth inning to tie the game and won the game in the 11th on a two-run homer... Freshman Dave Kubiak (Southold, N.Y./Southold) pitched 7.2 innings, allowing three hits and the unearned run, but did not factor into the decision.
Binghamton (7-19, 0-4 AE) dropped its first four conference games and has now lost five in a row and 11 of its last 13. The four defeats at Stony Brook marked the first time the Bearcats have been swept in a four-game conference set since the league went to that format in 2006 (a span of 12 series’)... With the pair of one-run defeats against the Seawolves, a young Binghamton team fell to 2-9 in one-run games this spring... In the series, Binghamton held late-inning leads in two losses on Saturday and then outscored Stony Brook in 14 of 16 innings on Sunday, but the Seawolves packed their two-game run totals into just two innings to complete the sweep... Senior center fielder Ryan James (Wading River, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) hit .562 in the series, and has now hit safely in eight of his last 10 games (.395). After starting the season with a 1-for-19 slump (5 games), James is batting .354 over his last 21 games... Freshman right fielder Peter Bregartner (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip) continued his torrid hitting in his homecoming on Long Island. He hit .400 in the series and blasted his third home run of the season ? a three-run shot in game 1. Bregartner is hitting .444 during his current 10-game hit streak.
The University of Hartford baseball team (9-13 overall, 3-1 AE) finished 3-2 over five games, including taking three of four from the Albany Great Danes in the opening series in conference play. For the week, the Hawks were led by rookie infielder Andy Drexel (Pequa, Pa./Penn Manor) who hit .400 on the week, starting all five games. He finished with eight hits in 20 at bats, with five of his hits going for extra bases, including the first long ball of his career in the Albany series. Drexel also finished with a team best six RBI, including four in the second game against the Great Danes. He opened the week with three hits against instate rival Connecticut and then followed that up with a 2-for-4 and 3-for-5 effort in the opening doubleheader against Albany. He pushed two runs across in the first game and then four in the second game, including a two run home run over the left field fence. Ben Sobocinski (Waldorf, Md.D/McDonough) also faired well for the Hawks, finishing with a .364 batting average over the five games, while adding five RBI and scoring four runs. He also led the team in stolen bases with a 4-of-5 effort on the base paths. Mike Amendola (North Babylon, N.Y./Suffolk) finished second for the week in batting with a .368 average (7-for-19) and four RBI, while Adam Bowser (Abington, Mass./Worcester Academy) also finished with four RBI.
The University of Maine baseball team (9-13-1, 0-0 AE) went 2-0-1 on the week... The Black Bears started the week with a 0-0 five-inning rain-shortened tie against NYIT... It was Maine’s 17th tie in history and first since 2006 when it played to a 3-3 tie with Delaware State... Maine then recorded 15-3 and 19-0 wins over NJIT... Maine players belted three home runs on Saturday and a pair on Sunday... Curt Smith (Willemstad, Curacao/Peter Stuyvesant) hit his team-leading sixth home run of the season on Saturday... Rookie Matt Howard (Weston, Mass./Weston) hit a pair of home runs in Maine’s 19-0 win on Sunday... On Sunday against NJIT, the Black Bears tied a school record for doubles in a game with seven... It is the fifth time in history that Maine has hit seven doubles in a game and the first since 2003 against Long Island... Maine had four doubles, a triple and a home run in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game... Maine got some outstanding pitching performances on the week again... Joe Miller (Valley Stream, N.Y./Valley Stream/High Point) pitched five scoreless innings on Friday in which he allowed just two hits while striking out six... Matt Jebb (Toronto, Ontario/St. Michael’s) pitched six innings on Sunday where he also allowed just two hits while fanning eight batters... He did not allow a runner to reach second base... Maine opens America East Conference play this weekend when it hosts Albany.
UMBC (8-16, 1-3 America East) opened conference-play last weekend and claimed its first-ever conference-opening win as the Retrievers downed Vermont, 10-9 on Friday... The Retrievers dropped the next three games of the series by a combined score of 34-11, however and dropped to 1-3 in the conference... The Retrievers started the week of with a 14-4 rout of George Washington on Tuesday, which saw two home runs from junior Scott Peddicord (Columbia, Md./Long Reach)... Junior Wink Nolan (Ellicott City, Md./Calvert Hall/Maryland) continued his double-generating campaign as he added four in five games last week, including three in the four-game series against the Catamounts, for an average of 0.80 doubles/gm last week... Senior Will Delawter led the team with a .438 average for the week, while Peddicord slugged .905 after tallying three home runs in two games... Freshman Sterling Sams (Vienna, Va./James Madison) earned the win against GW after pitching one scoreless and hitless inning in relief, while junior Dan Blewett (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) picked up the win against Vermont, pitching 6.2 innings and striking out four while allowing seven runs on nine hits... The Retrievers host Navy on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. before traveling to Vestal, N.Y. on the weekend to face Binghamton in a four-game series.
The Seawolves (14-11, 4-0 AE) swept a four-game series from Binghamton over the weekend and are now 6-0 at home ... Sophomore Jeremy Nowak went 8-for-17 in three-game series against the Bearcats and also picked up three saves ... Junior Mike Errigo allowed just two unearned runs in 8.2 innings of work to pick up the victory in the Seawolves 5-2 victory over Binghamton on Sunday. The right-hander allowed just seven hits and struck out seven ... Junior Rob Dyer went 7-for-13 with seven RBI in the four-game set against Binghamton ... Sophomore Jordan Purington picked up his first two victories of the season over the weekend ... Sophomore Devin Will picked up his first career save in Sunday’s 5-2 victory over the Bearcats ... The Seawolves scored all seven of their runs in the third inning of Sunday’s first game and then scored all of their five runs in the fourth inning of Sunday’s second game ... Senior Tom Koehler tied a career-high with 13 strike outs in Saturday’s first game against Binghamton ... Koehler pitched 7.2 innings on Saturday and has now gone at least 6.0 innings in each of his six starts.
Vermont (8-10, 3-1 AE) opened its America East schedule by taking three of four at UMBC last weekend ... After dropping Friday's opener, the Catamounts outscored the Retrievers, 34-11, to win the next three contests ... Senior Kyle Massie (Rutland, Vt./Rutland) and sophomore Justin Milo (Edina, Minn./Edina/Cornell) each went 7-for-16 (.468) in the four games against the Retrievers ... Massie hit his first career homer, a grand slam, in the 17-4 win in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader and his bases loaded triple broke open Sunday's 13-5 victory ... Milo on Sunday went 5-for-6 with two doubles and two RBI after hitting his third home run of the season on Friday ... Milo leads the Catamounts with a .377 batting average and 14 of his 29 hits have gone for extra-bases ... Senior LHP Eric Thompson (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) went the distance to win Saturday's second game ... He scattered just five hits, struck out seven and allowed only two runs in a 4-2 win over the top hitting team in America East ... Senior Miguel Magrass (West Roxbury, Mass./Salisbury) remained hot at the plate with three doubles, two homers and seven RBI in the series ... Sophomore Ethan Paquette (West Burke, Vt./St. Johnsbury Academy) extended his hitting streak to 12 games at UMBC and he drove in six runs in the four contests ... The Catamounts have three non-league doubleheaders in the coming week starting Tuesday at Siena at 2:00pm ... Vermont has a four-game series at Division I Independent New Jersey Tech (NJIT) Saturday and Sunday at Bears and Eagles Stadium in Newark, N.J. Game one for both twinbills starts at noon.