CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- America East baseball conference play got underway last weekend between the raindrops, and a trio of players earned league honors to start off the second part of the season. Vermont sophomore shortstop Matt Duffy (Milton, Mass./St. Sebastian's) proved valuable at the plate to earn Player of the Week recognition. Binghamton lefty pitcher James Giulietti (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview-JFK), another sophomore, received Pitcher of the Week honors, and Albany freshman first baseman Mike Tirri (Lake George, N.Y./Lake George) was named Rookie of the Week.
In four games against defending America East Champion Stony Brook last weekend, Duffy hit .615 (8-for-13) with six runs scored, four walks, three doubles, three homers and 11 RBI. He also recorded a 1.538 slugging percentage and a .722 OBP. In Vermont’s 9-7 win in the second game of Saturday’s double-header, Duffy went 3-for-4 with four RBI. In Sunday’s nightcap, a 10 inning 21-20 decision in SBU’s favor, the sophomore Catamount went 4-for-4 with a walk, two doubles, two four-baggers and five RBI. His second homer of that game, his sixth of the year, was a grand slam. This is Duffy’s second Player of the Week award of the season.
Giulietti pitched six strong, scoreless innings against Hartford on Sunday, allowing just four hits, all singles. He walked just one batter faced and struck out three opponents, while compiling a 0.00 ERA and 1-0 record for the week. Giulietti lowered his season ERA to 3.20, third in the league among eligible pitchers, and improved to 2-1 in 25.1 innings pitched in 2009, while walking just two batters faced all season.
Tirri, the starting first baseman for the first-place Great Danes, recorded a .300 average over five games last week, driving in 12 runs in 20 at-bats. He tallied six hits, including two doubles and two home runs, posting a .700 slugging percentage. In addition to the runs he drove in, the rookie also scored six runs in Albany’s sweep of conference foe UMBC. In Sunday’s series finale, Tirri made the difference in the 10-7 victory with a three-run homer. Tirri, who didn’t commit an error all week, helped turn a double play in the ninth inning of the finale to seal the win.
Team Notebooks:
UAlbany
(9-16 overall, 4-0 America East) dropped a non-conference game to Manhattan
during the week before completing a four-game sweep of UMBC in conference
action over the weekend... The Great Danes lost a 9-4 game to Manhattan, but outscored the Retrievers 44-21
over Saturday and Sunday... Senior centerfielder Dave West (Toms River,
N.J./Toms River North) recorded a .450 average over the five games last week,
and now leads the team on the season... West recorded nine hits, including two
doubles and one home run, scoring seven runs and driving in five more... Freshman
first baseman Mike Tirri (Lake George,
N.Y./Lake George) recorded a .300 average last week, with six hits, six runs
scored and a team-high 12 RBI.... He went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBI
in a 15-4 win over UMBC in the series opener and closed out the weekend with a
three-run homer in the 10-7 finale win... Freshman right hander Zach Kraham (Ghent, N.Y./Chatham)
moved to 2-1 on the season with a complete-game performance in a 9-1 victory over
the Retrievers... He was throwing a no-hitter until the sixth, when UMBC knocked
out back-to-back singles... He fanned six opposing batters, while issuing four
walks in his first complete game as a collegian... Senior catcher Ryan Gugel (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia/Genesee
C.C.) posted a .389 average for the week... His best performance of the week came
in the series finale, when he went 2-for-3, hitting two home runs, including a
grand slam... Gugel scored three runs and finished with five RBI in the game... The
Great Danes will return to action on Wednesday with a non-conference
doubleheader at Marist before hosting Binghamton
in a four-game America East series over the weekend at Varsity Field.
Binghamton (9-10, 2-0) won two of three for the week,
including a twinbill sweep of Hartford in the team's first conference
series. The final two games of the
four-game series were cancelled due to bad weather. Binghamton has won 10 of its last 11 games
against the Hawks.. Earlier in the week, Binghamton was one out away from a
non-conference win at Marist before the Red Foxes hit a walkoff two-run home run in their final at-bat... Sophomore center fielder Corey Taylor (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) went 5-for-9
with six RBI against Hartford. Taylor
hit a key two-run double to help the Bearcats rally from 4-0 down in the
opener. He then went 4-for-6 with a
two-run home run and four RBI in the nightcap... Taylor raised his season
average to .329 with a team-high 16 RBI... Junior left fielder Joe Charron
(Schaghticoke, N.Y./La Salle Institute) hit .667 in the three games during the
week (6-for-9)... Against Hartford, junior starter Murphy Smith (Clifton Park,
N.Y./Shenendehowa HS) settled in for his fifth win in six starts this
spring. After falling behind 4-0 despite
overpowering the Hawks, Smith pitched four perfect middle innings and was the
recipient of Binghamton's comeback win.
Smith (5-1) didn't allow a hit past the third inning and wound up with
10 strikeouts and one walk. The
conference wins and ERA leader has 29 strikeouts and just five walks in six
starts...Sophomore lefty James Giulietti earned the win in game
two against Hartford. Guilietti went six
scoreless innings, allowing four singles with a walk and three strikeouts.
The
Hartford baseball team (4-15, 0-2) played just three games last week after
having two of the games in its conference opening series at Binghamton rained
out ... Hartford opened the week with a 6-4 home win over the University of
Connecticut in its only mid-week tune-up ... Against the Huskies, the Hawks got a
quality start from Matt Govoni, who
made his first start of the season ... Govoni went 5.2 innings allowing two runs,
one earned on three hits, earning his first collegiate win ... Lead off batter Andrew Siano led the Hawks with a
2-for-4 showing, with two RBI and two runs scored ... After having its first day
of conference play rained out, the Hawks gave up five runs in the fifth inning,
of a seven inning game, to drop their conference opener 5-4 on Sunday ... Right
after that comeback win, the Bearcats held Hartford to just five hits in the
second game of the doubleheader, shutting out the Hawks 13-0 ... In the opening
game, Ben Sobocinski started, but
did not get the loss ... Sobocinski gave up four earned runs in 4.1 innings on
four hits and three walks ... Bob Rogers
came in relief and gave up just one run on two hits, but that run proved to be
the game winner ... In the second game, the Hawks fell behind early allowing four
runs in the third and two in the fourth, as the Bearcats put the game out of
reach with a seven run fifth inning ... Hartford will host Holy Cross in its only
mid-week warm up for this weekends conference series against Maine ... The Hawks
begin the week with a Wednesday afternoon game against Holy Cross at 3:00 p.m.
... The series with Maine will consist of doubleheaders on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.
and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ... All games will be played at the University of
Hartford Baseball Field on campus.
The University of Maine baseball team (17-12,
0-0) swept a four-game series with Iona over the weekend... The
Black Bears put up 59 runs in the four games... Maine’s Billy Cather (Worcester,
Mass./Worcester Academy) went 5-for-5 on Friday and recorded a hit in his first
at bat on Saturday to record six straight hits... Cather leads the Black Bears in
batting with a .400 average... Cather currently has 197 career hits... Senior Kevin
McAvoy (Brewer, Maine/Brewer) recorded
five hits on the weekend, including the 200th of his career... He also
extended his hitting streak to 18 games on the weekend... Senior Danny Menedez
(Miami, Fla.) entered the week ranked third in the nation in sacrifice bunts...
Menendez was 7-for-7 in stolen base attempts on the weekend and leads the Black
Bears in stolen bases with 19 on the season... He tied a Maine record for stolen
bases in a game with three stolen bases on Saturday against Iona... Maine has
turned 36 double plays on the season and 29 games... The Black Bears hit nine
home runs in four games against Iona... Myckie Lugabuer (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac)
and rookie Kyle Stilphen (Pittston, Maine/Gardiner) each hit a pair... Stilphen
and Taylor Lewis (Montville, Conn.) each hit their first career home run on the
weekend... Maine’s Tony Patane (New Milford, Conn./New Milford) has started 78
straight games for the Black Bears at shortstop... The Black Bears open America
East Conference play this weekend when they travel to Hartford for a four game
series with the Hawks.
The UMBC baseball
team (4-18, 0-4) had a rough week, going 0-5 for the week, including a
four-game sweep at the hands of Albany over the weekend... Senior Shawn Retz (Baltimore, Md./Western Tech/Catonsville C.C.) continue to
leads the team in hitting at .440 and is tied for the team lead in home runs
(5) with senior Tom Meaney (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem) and
sophomore Bryan Russo (Westbury, N.Y./Clarke)...
Senior Brad Brainer (Chester, Md./Kent Island/Chesapeake JC)
is having a good year in the lead-off spot, batting .348 with nine steals...
Freshman Max Himmelstein (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown)
is having an outstanding rookie season, hitting .344 with two home runs and 15
RBI... The Retrievers return to action Tuesday when they host Navy at 6 p.m.
and host Stony Brook in a four-game series on Friday and Saturday.
The Seawolves (12-11, 3-1) lost their first two games of
the week, to New York Tech and Hofstra, before taking three of four from
Vermont over the weekend in its first America East series of the season ... the
Seawolves capped the weekend with a marathon 21-20 victory over Vermont in the
second game of the Sunday doubleheader ... the 10 inning game lasted four hours
and 13 minutes and featured a combined 41 runs, 39 hits and 14 pitchers ... the 21
runs scored by the Seawolves is their most since defeating Wagner 22-7 on April
11, 2006 ... the 41 combined runs were the most in a Stony Brook game since SBU
defeated Quinnipiac 27-20 in the 2000 season ... senior Keith Fier’s bunt single
with two outs in the 10th inning scored senior Michael Tansey
with the winning run ... senior Brian
Witkowski tied the game with two outs in the ninth, dropping an RBI single just
over the head of Vermont second baseman Brad Currier ... Witkowski went 4-for-5,
including two home runs, with five RBI in the game ... sophomore Chad Marshall
went 5-for-7 in the game and went 14-for-20 in the four-game set against the
Catamounts ... junior Chris Maier, making his first ever appearance on the mound,
picked up the victory, allowing just one run in 2.0 innings of work ... the
Seawolves won the opening game of Sunday’s doubleheader, 6-3 ... SBU trailed 3-1
entering the sixth but responded with five runs in the inning to take a 6-3
lead it would not relinquish ... senior Chad Rebecca tied the game with a
run-scoring single and Marshall gave the Seawolves the lead with a two-out RBI
single ... Stony Brook split the Saturday doubleheader with UVM ... Junior Rob Dyer
hit the go-ahead home run to lead off the sixth inning in the Seawolves 5-4
victory in the first game.
Vermont (5-17, 1-3) went 1-3 in
its first America East series of the season at Stony Brook ... All four games with
the defending league champions were decided in the winners' last at bat ...
Sunday's 21-20 loss to the Seawolves was the highest scoring collegiate game in
the 121-year history of baseball at UVM (2,847 games). Previously, Vermont and
Providence combined for 39 runs in a 20-19 Cats win in 1985 ... The Catamounts
and Seawolves each used seven pitchers and the two teams combined for 39 hits,
16 for extra bases including six home runs ... Sophomore shortstop Matt Duffy (Milton, Mass./St.
Sebastian's) had another outstanding weekend hitting .615 (8-for-13) with six runs scored,
four walks, three doubles, three homers and 11 RBI in the four games at SBU ...
Duffy, who had a 1.538 slugging percentage and a .722 on base percentage, is
now hitting .544 with 6 HR, 21 RBI along with a .982 slugging percentage and a
.618 OBP ... Vermont went deep five times last weekend and now has 20 homers in
its first 22 games. Last year, UVM hit only 21 homers in all 51 contests ...
Mark Micowski (Haddam, Conn./Xavier)
saw his school-record 16-game hitting
streak end in Saturday's opener but bounced back to go 3-for-4 with three runs
scored in UVM's 9-7 comeback win in the nightcap ... The Catamounts will have
to wait another week for the services of junior OF Justin Milo (Edina, Minn./Edina/Cornell), a second team
all-conference pick in 2008 ... Milo is skating for the Vermont men's hockey
team at the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Hockey Frozen Four this weekend at the
Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. ...
Vermont takes on Siena in its home opener at Historic Centennial Field Tuesday
with a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. The twinbill opens stretch of 11 of the
next 12 games at home including this Friday and Saturday when UVM hosts NJIT
and Manhattan in the Catamount Baseball Classic.