ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Mar. 31, 2016) - The Molloy Baseball team is set to continue the good feelings following a 9-5 win against Bloomfield College on Tuesday. As of now, the 15-7 Lions are tied with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Bridgeport for first place in the East Coast Conference standings. Though this weekend's three games (two against Dominican on Saturday and one versus Post University on Sunday) will not count towards the ECC rankings, all of the contests are regional games and therefore carry some importance for the maroon and white.
The Lions led by sophomore first baseman
Angelo Navetta (Staten Island, N.Y.), who is having a great start to this season. Navetta is hitting an impressive .390 batting average with 2 home runs and 12 RBIs. The sophomore is sporting a .532 slugging percentage and has also worked seven walks so far this season at the plate. Junior outfielder
Anthony Galanoudis (Farmingdale, N.Y.) leads the team with 14 RBI's; meanwhile, senior
Deilyn Guzman (East Hampton, N.Y.) leads the team in hits with 31 and is tied with
Brian Murphy (Elmont, N.Y.) for runs scored with 21. The offense may be firing on all cylinders, but Molloy is also getting excellent contributions from the mound.
Ronald Bauer (Hicksville, N.Y.) continues his great season on the mound with a 3-0 record and 23 strikeouts while sporting a conference-low 0.56 ERA. Red-shirt junior
Bobby Kelly (Mineola, N.Y.) is also dangerous with a 4-0 record and a 1.61 earned-run average; Kelly tossed a one-hitter last Saturday (Mar. 26) versus LIU Post and was named ECC Pitcher of the Week. The rise of sophomore
Anthony Catinella (Middle Village, N.Y.) also cannot be overlooked. The tall righty has struck out 20 batters over his last two starts while allowing nine hits and just one run over 16 innings of work.
On Saturday (Apr. 2), the Lions will look to improve on their 7-1 home record as they host Dominican College for an afternoon doubleheader at Mitchel Field beginning at 12 p.m. The Chargers so far are 7-15 on the season and have lost five games in a row, including a 20-6 drubbing thanks to Adelphi on Thursday (Mar. 31). Junior outfielder Arbely Soto (Bronx, N.Y.) has proven to be a threat in the batter's box with 11 extra-base hits (including five doubles and five triples). Anthony Hunter (Palm City, Fla.) leads the team in innings pitched, but the proverbial ace of the Chargers' staff did throw on Wednesday (Mar. 30) against Nyack, so he may not get the ball this weekend..
The maroon and white will finish the weekend in Uniondale as they are set to host the Post University Eagles on Sunday (Apr. 3). Post U. will be coming off of a doubleheader on Saturday (Apr. 2) against Nyack in New York against their conference foes from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The anomaly of the Eagles' schedule is the fact that the squad has not played a home game at all this season, going 1-8 on the road and 6-17 overall as of Friday. Another issue for the squad is the lack of hitting prowess; Post is sporting a team batting average under .220 and leading hitter Joey Picone (Washingtonville, N.Y.) has just a .265 average. Sophomore Don Walsh (Hamilton, N.J.) has a team-best four home runs, but the Eagles have driven in just 58 RBIs on the season. With a team earned-run average above the six-run mark, Molloy has the advantage on paper but of course games are won between the foul lines and not on paper.
