CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Binghamton freshman first baseman Dave Ciocchi (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./John Hay) earned America East Baseball Player of the Week this week after he helped the Bearcats take three out of four from Stony Brook, a series in which every game was decided by a single run. Vermont's Justin Albert (Hull, Mass./Hull) tossed a gem against Albany and received Pitcher of the Week accolades, while Maine's Ian Leisenheimer (Middle Village, N.Y./Holy Cross High), the Rookie of the Week, was stellar at the plate while helping the Black Bears go a perfect 6-0 against league foes last week.
Ciocchi was the offensive star in the crucial series win against Stony Brook last weekend. The freshman hit .500 with nine RBI in the four conference games, batting .471 for the week. Ciocchi also had a .600 on base percentage during the weekend series, and lifted his season batting average to .362. In the third inning of the opening game against Stony Brook, he had a clutch two-out, bases-loaded hit to score two runs. He also clubbed a home run and drew three walks for the week. On the season, he is now 3-for-4 batting with bases loaded. Ciocchi has driven in 17 runs in the last 11 games for the Bearcats, who sit in second-place in the America East standings.
Albert allowed just two singles and a hit batter in hurling a complete-game, seven-inning shutout to beat Albany in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. He struck out eight against the Great Danes needing only 77 pitches (52 strikes) to earn the win and bring his season record to 3-5. He also lowered his ERA to a team-leading 4.59. The game against Albany was Vermont’s first shutout of the season and it was Albert’s team-high fourth complete game.
Leisenheimer hit an amazing .684 on the week for the Black Bears to earn his third award of the season. He recorded 13 hits in 19 at bats, scored four runs and drove in a team-high nine runs on the week. The rookie finished the six-win week with a .789 slugging percentage. In a doubleheader with Hartford last Monday, he was 2-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBI in the first game and followed that up by going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI in the nightcap. In the four-game series sweep of UMBC last weekend, Leisenheimer drove in six Black Bear runs, and went 6-for-7 in Sunday’s doubleheader.
Team Notebooks:
UAlbany (14-21, 7-5 America East) split a weekend series
at Vermont last
week... The Great Danes won the first game, 10-8, and dropped the second, 6-3, on
Saturday... Vermont
posted a 4-0 win in game one on Sunday, but UAlbany finished up the series with
a 9-4 win in the finale... Senior Ryan Gugel (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia/Genesee) hit .357 for
the weekend, with five hits, three runs scored and four RBI... Junior right
fielder Brendan Rowland (Albany, N.Y./Colonie Central) recorded four hits,
scored four runs and drove in another four... Freshman Mike Tirri (Lake George, N.Y./Lake George) hit a three-run homer on
Saturday in the Great Danes’ comeback victory... Tirri now leads the team with 24
RBI on the season... Senior right hander
Sean Gregory (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip)
threw 4.1 innings of relief in two appearances over the weekend, earning one
victory... Gregory, who has a team-high 39 strikeouts, fanned five opposing
batters while scattering just three hits... Freshman Zach Kraham (Ghent, N.Y./Chatham)
earned the victory on the mound in the finale... Kraham went 6.2 innings on
Sunday, striking out five... UAlbany will welcome non-conference opponent Le
Moyne to Varsity Field on Tuesday before visiting Stony Brook for a four-game
America East series over the weekend.
Binghamton (16-14, 8-2) went 4-1 on the week and took
three of four in conference play to remain near the top of the standings. After rallying for a 10-8 non-conference win
over Siena, the Bearcats rallied three times to beat Stony Brook before the
Seawolves produced their own rally to win the series finale...Freshman first baseman Dave Ciocchi (Hopewell Junction,
N.Y./John Jay HS) hit .500 with nine RBI in the Stony Brook
series. Ciocchi is hitting .421 with 17
RBI in his last 11 games... Sophomore outfielder Corey Taylor (Vestal,
N.Y./Vestal) batted .467 with seven RBI in the four-game set with the
Seawolves. He won game two with a
bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth.
Taylor has recorded an RBI in eight straight games - a school record...
Senior closer Greg Lane (Binghamton, N,Y./Binghamton/Hofstra) notched two wins
and a save in four appearances. Lane
struck out the side in the ninth against Siena to earn his fifth save of the
season. He then posted two wins against
Stony Brook, allowing just one hit over four innings of relief... Junior
shortstop Jeff Abrams (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) hit a walk-off single to the wall in right center
to win the opening game... Junior second baseman Jim Calderone (Homer Glen,
Ill./Brother Rice HS/Oakton CC) was the hero in Binghamton's game 3 win,
slapping a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 7-7
tie.
The Hartford baseball team (8-21, 1-5) went
2-5 in seven games last week ... They opened the week dropping both games in a
doubleheader against Maine, which ended a four-game series with the Black Bears
... With those two loses, the Hawks fell to 1-5 in conference play ... Hartford
then closed out six-games in four days with two mid-week outings, the first a
10-2 loss at Connecticut, the second a 12-1 loss against URI at home ... Hartford
then welcomed NJIT for a three-game weekend series, taking two of the three
games ... Hartford won the first game of the series 13-9, coming from behind and
then fell in the middle game 4-3, before picking up a 12-4 win in the final
game ... In the final game against NJIT, the Hawks were a peftect 8-for-8 in stolen
bases, which is the most stolen bases in a game for the Hawks under head coach
Jeff Calcaterra ... For the week, the Hawks were led by Matt Walker (East Lyme, Conn./Catawba College) who finished with
nine hits in 17 at bats for a .529 batting average ... Ben Sobocinski and Andy
Drexel led the team with seven RBI over the seven games ... Ben Sobocinski
finished the week hitting .333 with eight hits in 24 at bats, three of his hits
went for extra bases ... Cory Beahm and
Steve Sobocinski earned the two
victories for Hartford ... Steve Sobocinski came in relief of his brother in the
first game of the series and pitched 2.2 innings to earn his first collegiate
victory ... Beahm started the final game of the series against NJIT and allowed
one earned run on five hits, with seven strikeouts, six of which came in the
first three innings of his five innings of work ... The Hawks will play one
mid-week game, against Yale on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., before returning to
conference play with a four-game series at UMBC on April 25 & 26.
The University of Maine baseball team (24-13,
7-1 America East) was a perfect 6-0 on the week... The Black Bears have currently
won 12 of their last 14 games... Senior Billy Cather (Worcester, Mass./Worcester
Academy) recorded his 200th career hit in Maine’s 6-1 victory over
UMBC on Saturday... Cather scored 11 runs in the six games over the week... Maine
second baseman Danny Menendez (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) was a perfect
7-for-7 in stolen bases on the week... He set a Maine school record with four
stolen bases in Maine’s 5-4 win over UMBC on Sunday afternoon... Menendez has 26
stolen bases on the season... In the first game on Saturday, he reached 100
consecutive games played... He has currently seen action on 103 straight games
for the Black Bears... Last week, Menendez was second in the nation in sacrifice
bunts... He currently has 14 sacrifice bunts... Maine turned five double plays in its
seven inning game on Saturday against UMBC... The Black Bears have turned 51
double plays in 37 games this season... Maine head coach Steve Trimper won his
100th game as head coach of the Black Bears in Maine’s 11-5 win over
UMBC on Sunday afternoon.... Sophomore pitcher Matt Jebb (Toronto, Ontario/St.
Michael’s) is 6-1 on the season, while rookie Pat Quinn (Quaker Hill,
Conn./Waterford) is 5-0 with a 1.74 ERA... Quinn took a no-hitter into the sixth
inning in Maine’s game against UMBC on Sunday... Maine will host Holy Cross in
Sanford, Maine on Tuesday, before hosting Vermont for an America East series
next weekend.
UMBC (5-26, 1-11) dropped four games to Maine
this past weekend to fall to 1-11 in conference play... Freshman Justin Lamborn
(Glen Mills, Pa./Garnett Valley) hit his first home
run as a Retriever on Saturday, while sophomore Rick Phillips (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) hit his first career grand
slam on Sunday... Senior Shawn Retz (Baltimore, Md./Western
Tech/Catonsville C.C.) continues his torrid pace, hitting .422 on the
season with multi-hit games in six out the last seven outings... Senior Wink
Nolan (Ellicott City, Md./Calvert Hall/Maryland) hit
.571 over the weekend, including his first home run of the season... The
Retrievers travel to Georgetown on Tuesday before hosting George Washington on
Wednesday. UMBC returns to America East action this weekend they play host to
Hartford.
The
Seawolves (17-16, 7-5) dropped three of four at Binghamton over the weekend ... each game in
the series was decided in the winning team’s final at-bat ... Stony Brook rallied
from a 6-0 deficit to win the final game of the series, 7-6 ... the Seawolves
scored six times in the seventh inning ... Senior Chad Rebecca came home with the
tying run on a Binghamton wild pitch ... Rebecca also scored the go-ahead run on a
sacrifice fly from freshman Sal Intagliata in the ninth ... Junior Jeremy Nowak
picked up the victory for SBU as he got out of one-out bases loaded jam in the
eighth and then retired the side in order in the ninth ... Binghamton won the
first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, 8-7 ... junior Rob Dyer went 2-for-3 with
two RBI and two runs scored ... the Bearcats won the first game of the series,
8-7 ... Dyer hit two home runs and drove in a career-high six runs ... Dyer hit
.385 with three home runs and nine RBI in the four-game set against the
Bearcats ... freshman Tyler Johnson started the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader
for the Seawolves and allowed three runs on five hits in 6.0 innings of work
... Binghamton won the second game of
Saturday’s doubleheader, 4-3 ... senior Mike Errigo started for the Seawolves and
allowed just three runs on four hits in 7.1 innings ... Errigo also struck out
seven ... SBU will cap a string of 11 straight road games on Tuesday at Hofstra.
Vermont (10-21, 3-5) split six games last week including going 2-2 with Albany in its
first America East home series
... The Catamounts hit five homers in the six games and now has 25 in 31 games,
four more than in all 51 games a year ago ... UVM went deep four times in its
five home games. In all of 2008, it hit only one HR at Centennial Field ...
Mark Micowski (Haddam Conn./Xavier) went 8-for-15 (.533) with 2 HR and 8 RBI in
the four games with Albany. Twice he lead off the first with homers, both in
Catamount victories ... Micowski, who had a school-record 16-game hitting
streak earlier this year, has hit in nine straight and in 28 of the team's 31
games ... Senior lefty Justin Albert (Hull, Mass./Hull) hurled a complete-game
two-hitter to blank Albany, 4-0, in game one Sunday, UVM's first shutout of the
season. Albert needed only 77 pitches striking out eight and walking one ...
Matt Duffy (Milton, Mass./St. Sebastian's) homered twice and drove in six runs.
He leads the Cats with 8 HR and 28 RBI ... Junior reserve catcher Kyle Tufts
(Exeter, N.H./Phillips Exeter) went 5-for-5 with a double and a RBI against
Plattsburgh State last Wednesday. Tufts, who was a backup goalkeeper on the
Vermont men's soccer team that reached the 2006 America East title game, had
only two hits in 13 previous career at bats prior to Wednesday ... Vermont
hosts Marist and Dartmouth in non-league midweek games before heading to Maine
for a four-game weekend conference series.