ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Mar. 28, 2016) - Taking three of four from a conference rival and being ranked inside the top-three in the NCBWA East Region poll can be characterized as a really good weekend for the Molloy College baseball team. That said, the old popular culture saying has come true for the maroon and white: the hunters are now going to become the hunted. With regional opponents gunning to take down the Lions, Molloy will need to defend its den and stand its ground throughout the rest of the season to keep pace with top-two schools Franklin Pierce and Southern New Hampshire. The first test for the Lions comes at home on Tuesday (Mar. 29) versus the Bloomfield College Bears.
About the Lions- Molloy currently holds a 14-7 record overall so far in 2016, which is the best mark through 21 games for the program since 2008 when the maroon and white opened the season with a 13-8 record. The Lions have been able to generate success through a mix of good hitting (.304 team batting average) and solid shutdown pitching (149 team strikeouts in 178.1 total innings pitched).
- Red-shirt junior southpaw
Bobby Kelly (Mineola, N.Y.) was named the East Coast Conference's Pitcher of the Week on Monday (Mar. 28) after tossing a complete-game one-hitter against LIU Post on Saturday (Mar. 26). Kelly is 4-0 so far this season with a 1.61 earned-run average and a .160 batting average against. Meanwhile, junior right-handed pitcher
Ronald Bauer (Hicksville, N.Y.) has an equally impressive 3-0 record with an ERA that is just over half-a-run allowed (0.56).
- Sophomore first baseman
Angelo Navetta (Staten Island, N.Y.) is leading the team with a .390 batting average, collecting 30 hits in 77 at-bats this season. Navetta has a team-high two home runs and ranks second on the team with 12 runs batted in. Meanwhile, both
Deilyn Guzman (East Hampton, N.Y.) and
Michael Rahn (Sayville, N.Y.) are actively on four-game hitting streaks.
Concerning the Bears- Bloomfield has had a rough start to its season, winning just three of 15 games played in 2016. The Bears were battered by New Haven on Mar. 23 to the tune of 13 runs and 14 hits allowed in a 13-2 loss to the Chargers in Connecticut. Bloomfield managed just five hits against the home side while freshman pitcher Justin Torres (Teaneck, N.J.) allowed six runs in four innings pitched to take the loss.
- The Bears are led by sophomores Christopher Cabral (Lodi, N.J.) and Harry Montero (Millville, N.J.) at the plate. Cabral has a team-best .362 batting average with 17 hits in 47 at-bats while Montero is hitting .321 with a team-high six runs batted in. Take those two players away from the Bears' lineup, however, and Bloomfield is batting just .194 as a team (76 hits in 391 turns at bat).
- The pitching rotation for seventh-year head coach Jeff Watson is a relatively young bunch of arms. Torres and Anthony Maldonado (Newark, N.J.) are first-year collegiate players, while sophomore Steven Acosta (Lakewood, N.J.) and juniors Charles Castellano (Bayonne, N.J.), Carlos Tejeda (New York, N.Y.) and Luis Hidalgo (Ridgefield, N.J.) have all gotten starts to marginal success for Bloomfield this season.
Prior Meeting- Molloy played Bloomfield back on Mar. 11 in Florida as part of the Lions' spring trip to Boca Raton. The maroon and white one-hit the Bears behind a six-inning performance from
Seth Noreman (Old Bethpage, N.Y.) while
Kevin Podell (Wantagh, N.Y.) and
Jack McCarty (Huntington, N.Y.) each drove in two runs to lift the Lions to a 9-1 win.
