CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- In a rain-shortened weekend for many teams, the University at Albany baseball team was busy completing a four-game sweep of America East foe Maine with help from Player of the Week Gary Pitcheralle (Mechanicville, N.Y./Mechanicville) and Rookie of the Week Zach Kraham (Ghent, N.Y./Chatham), as named today. The sweep soared Albany from a third-place tie to sole possession of second place in the standings. Binghamton hurler Jeff Dennis (North Syracuse, N.Y./Liverpool) kept his team in first place with a dominant performance on the mound down in Baltimore, earning Pitcher of the Week honors.
Pitcheralle hit .500 for the week, in leading Albany to a four-game sweep of Maine in conference play. The senior recorded 10 hits, including three doubles, one triple and one home run for a .900 slugging percentage. Pitcheralle scored seven runs and drove in another five while starting all five games in left field and recording 12 putouts without an error. The senior had two hits, including a double, and scored two runs in Friday’s 7-5 nightcap win over Maine. He scored the eighth-inning insurance run for the Great Danes in a one-run game after leading off the inning with a double. In Saturday’s first game, he went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, driving a homer over the left field fence in the first inning.
Kraham earned the win for Albany on the mound in the final game of an important four-game sweep of Maine in America East Conference action. In 5.2 innings, the rookie scattered five hits without allowing an earned run. Kraham issued just one walk while strikeout out four batters. He moves to 4-2 on the season with 32 strikeouts in 37.0 innings of work.
In his only appearance of the week, Dennis shut down UMBC on just two hits in a complete-game win. Over seven innings, he recorded a 0.00 ERA, five strikeouts and allowed just one walk. Dennis lowered his season ERA to 3.83, improved his record to 4-3 and recorded his third complete-game effort of the year.
Team Notebooks:
Albany (21-24, 13-7 America East) completed its second
four-game series sweep of an America East Conference opponent with four wins
against Maine
over the weekend... The Great Danes recorded 3-2 and 7-5 victories on Friday
before posting a 6-5 comeback win and an 8-2 victory on Saturday... Senior right
hander Sean Gregory (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) earned saves in both games on
Saturday, allowing just one run in 3.2 innings of work... Gregory took over for starter Dave Kubiak (Southold, N.Y./Southold) in
game one, who earned the win with six strikeouts in 6.1 innings... Senior Gary Pitcheralle
(Mechanicville, N.Y./Mechanicville) hit .500 for the week, recording 10 hits,
including three doubles, one triple and one home run... Pitcheralle, who
started all five games for the Great Danes in left field, scored seven runs and
drove in another five while tallying a .900 slugging percentage... Senior
centerfielder Dave West (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) recorded a walk-off
single in the bottom of the seventh to lead the Great Danes to a comeback win
over Maine in
the first half of Saturday’s doubleheader... Seniors Sean Donovan (Pleasant Valley,
N.Y./Arlington) and Ryan Gugel (Batavia,
N.Y./Batavia/Genesee C.C.) recorded two home runs apiece over the weekend...
Gugel, who finished with seven hits, led the team with six RBI and was 3-for-3
on stolen base attempts... Freshman right hander Zach Kraham (Ghent, N.Y./Chatham) earned the win in
Saturday’s finale with four strikeouts and no earned runs in 5.2 innings of
work... Senior Josh Willimott (East Greenbush,
N.Y./Columbia) also earned a win over the weekend with a five-innings
performance on Friday... The Great Danes visit Le Moyne on Tuesday and host New
York Tech in a four-game non-conference series over the weekend.
Binghamton (23-15, 10-2) went 3-0 on the week and
strengthened its position in first place in the conference standings. The Bearcats are up 3+ games (win percentage)
over second place Albany with two series' remaining. Binghamton is gunning for its third
consecutive regular season title... The team has won 14 of its last 16 games
including seven in a row... Sophomore outfielder Corey Taylor (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal)
hit .556 and scored eight runs in three games.
He had an on-base percentage of .692 and a slugging percentage of
1.222. Taylor belted his league-leading
11th home run of the season and bumped his team-high RBI total to 40...
Freshman first baseman Dave Ciocchi (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./John Jay) hit .615 with four RBI in the three games and is leading the
conference in average (.476) and RBI (21) in league play... Junior ace Murphy
Smith (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) went to 7-1 on the season with another
dominating performance. Smith struck out
13 and walked one against UMBC, tying the school record for wins in a
season. Smith leads the conference in
wins and ERA (2.64) and has amassed 64 strikeouts against only eight walks in
64.2 innings...Senior lefty Jeff Dennis (North Syracuse, N.Y./Liverpool)
fired a two-hit shutout against UMBC for his fourth win of the season...Binghamton pitchers lowered their season ERA to a
league-leading 4.61. The team also ranks
second in hitting (.317) and fourth in fielding (.958).
The
Hartford baseball team (12-27, 4-10) went 2-3 over five games last
week ... They opened the week with a loss at Dartmouth (13-5) before taking on
the Vermont Catamounts in a four-game series ... Hartford won the first two games
of the series, 4-3 and 5-3, but dropped games three (10-7) and four (14-5) to
close out the week ... For the week, sophomore catcher Andy Drexel (Pequea, Pa./Penn Manor) led the team with a .476
batting average, having started all five games ... Drexel finished the week
with 10 hits in 21 at bats, with four of his hits going for extra bases,
including a two-run home run that proved to be the game-winning hit in the
second game on Saturday ... Brothers, Ben
Sobocinski and Steve Sobocinski
picked up the week's two wins ... Ben Sobocinski pitched a complete game in the first
game of the series against Vermont ... He allowed three earned run on six hits
with four walks and three strikeouts ... His younger brother then came in relief
of Weston Szymanski and earned his
second win of the season, pitching the final 2.2 innings and not allowing a run
and only allowing one hit, while striking out one batter ... The Hawks will play
their final regular season road game at Central Connecticut (at Beehive Field,
New Britain, Conn.) on Tuesday at 2 p.m., before welcoming Stony Brook University
for the first of two home conference series in a row ... The Hawks and Seawolves
will play four games with doubleheaders scheduled for Saturday (12 p.m.) and
Sunday (1 p.m.).
The University of Maine baseball team (28-19,
9-7) went 2-4 on the week... The Black Bears defeated non-conference
opponents Thomas and Holy Cross, before dropping an America East series at
Albany... In the game against Thomas, senior second baseman Danny Menendez
(Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) stole a school-record five bases in the
game... Menendez had set the school record earlier in the year with four stolen
bases in a game... On Saturday at Albany, Menendez stole his 35th base
of the season, tying Chad White’s school record set in 1993... Menendez has
played in 113 consecutive games, one shy of moving into a tie for seventh place
on Maine’s consecutive games played list... TJ Sheedy (1995-98) holds the school
record with 213 consecutive games played... Maine turned five double plays on the
week, giving them 60 on the season... The Black Bears are four shy of tying the
school record set in 2005... Junior pitcher Justin Latta (Lubbock,
Texas/Monterey) made his second career start last Wednesday against Holy Cross
and went seven innings on the mound and allowed two earned runs... Prior to that
appearance, Latta had pitched just two innings all season long.. The game on
Wednesday against Holy Cross was played in Sanford, Maine... Maine will host
Binghamton for a four game America East series this weekend... It will be the
final regular season home series for the Black Bears... Before the game on
Sunday, Maine will honor its five seniors.
The UMBC baseball
team (9-30, 4-14) dropped three games last week, one on Tuesday to George
Mason and two to America East foe Binghamton on Saturday, before rain washed
away the final two games of the series... Senior Shawn Retz (Baltimore,
Md./Western Tech/Catonsville C.C.) continues to lead the Retrievers,
batting .404 with nine home runs on the season... Fellow senior Tom Meany (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem) leads UMBC with 14 doubles and 36
RBI... The Retrievers return to action Tuesday when they play host to local
rival Towson at 7 p.m. before travelling to Vermont for their final America
East series of the season.
The Seawolves (23-18, 9-7) opened the week with a 14-6
victory over Fairfield on Wednesday before sweeping a doubleheader from the Rider
Broncs on Saturday afternoon ... The final two games of the series with Rider,
scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m., were canceled due to inclement weather ... Junior
Robert Dyer and freshman Pat Cantwell each hit two home runs and combined for
nine RBI in the Seawolves victory over Fairfield ... It was the second two
homerun game of the season for Dyer ... Dyer is hitting .440 with seven home runs
and 20 RBI over the Seawolves last 13 games ... Cantwell drove in a career-high
five runs against the Stags ... Tt was the first two home runs of Cantwell’s
collegiate career ... The Seawolves defeated Rider, 4-2, in the opening game of
Saturday’s doubleheader ... Junior Jeremy Nowak, making his first of the season
after 17 relief appearances, picked up the win as he allowed just two runs on
six hits in 6.1 innings of work ... The Seawoives used a three-run sixth to break
a 1-1 tie ... Senior Steve Mazzurco drove in the first run of the inning with a
sacrifice fly before senior Michael Tansey capped the inning with a two-run
home run ... The Seawolves then completed the doubleheader sweep with a 13-5
victory over the Broncs... Dyer went 3-for-3, including a home run, with four RBI
for the Seawolves who broke open the game with a five-run third ... Tansey hit a
three-run home run in the third, his second homer of the day.
Vermont (15-28, 7-9) went 3-3 last week including splitting its four-game conference series with
Hartford at Centennial Field ... The offense came alive in a doubleheader sweep
of the Hawks Sunday with 10-7 and 14-5 victories ... In the six games UVM rapped out 24 doubles
and had four homers ... Vermont has 37 homers this season to tie the program
single-season mark set in 2003 ... Matt
Duffy (Milton, Mass./St. Sebastian's) is one of 38 finalists for the Brooks
Wallace National Shortstop of the Year Award presented by the College Baseball
Foundation ... Duffy has at least a share of the conference lead in homers
(11), RBI (41) and batting average (.426) ... Justin Milo (Edina, Minn./Edina/Cornell) hit .400 with three
doubles, two homers and 11 RBI last week and went 7-for-15 (.467) with a homer
and nine RBI in the Hartford series ... Milo has driven in 20 runs in the 20
games, 16 in 12 league contests, since joining the baseball team on April 11
after skating in the NCAA Men's Frozen Four ...
Improved sophomore Corey Moylan
(Glenview, Ill./Glen Brook North) hit .391 with seven doubles and a homer in
six games last week. He scored eight runs and drove in four others in the
Hartford series ... Mark Micowski
(Haddam, Conn./Xavier) went 10-for-21 (.476) on the week scoring 11 times. He
now has 61 hits this season to tie for the seventh most in school history ... Keith Rakus (West Suffield,
Conn./Suffield Academy) won his fourth straight start cruising through seven
innings in Sunday's 14-5 win over Hartford. Rakus has a 2.20 ERA over his last
four starts with three wins against conference foes ... Vermont hosts UMBC in a four-game series
this weekend with doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday at Historic Centennial
Field ... UVM's five seniors, Rakus, Justin
Albert (Hull, Mass./Hull), Brad
Currier (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex), Jeff
Nolet (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle) and Joe Serafin (Tariffville, Conn./Simsbury), will be honored between
games of Saturday's Senior Day twinbill.