ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Apr. 28, 2016) - Two weekends remain in the 2016 baseball season and the Molloy College Lions currently find themselves in a playoff position. That said, these final two conference series will be crucial for the maroon and white in order to make the postseason tournament. Doing so requires first winning a series that starts on Friday (Apr. 29) with a 3:30 p.m. game against Dowling College at Mitchel Field. The series will continue on to Saturday before wrapping up on Sunday (May 1) in a Senior Day celebration.
About the Lions
- Molloy is 26-14 on the season with a 10-6 mark in East Coast Conference play. The Lions are tied with Bridgeport for second place in the ECC standings, one game behind Saint Thomas Aquinas for first place.
- Molloy was ranked fourth in both the NCBWA East Region poll and the first NCAA Regional Rankings this past week. The Lions will head into the weekend on the heels of a 3-0 midweek loss to Felician University on Wednesday (Apr. 27).
- Sophomore first baseman
Angelo Navetta (Staten Island, N.Y.) continues to be the star for the maroon and white this season. He has a team-best .378 batting average but is hitting .419 in conference games. He has six extra-base hits and leads the Lions with 13 runs batted in through 16 East Coast Conference games.
- As a team, Molloy is hitting .302 in conference contests while holding opposing lineups to a .239 average so far. Junior pitcher
Ronald Bauer (Hicksville, N.Y.) is 4-0 in ECC games with a 0.69 earned-run average against conference foes.
- Molloy split a four-game series with Dowling last season, which took place on the final weekend of the spring campaign.
Concerning the Golden Lions
- Dowling's sub-.500 record (17-19) on the season is cancelled out by the team's 9-7 mark in ECC competition, a record which has them fourth in the conference. The Golden Lions have the same win total as LIU Post (9-11) with four games in hand over the Pioneers due to the rotating bye weeks.
- Despite missing 16 games this season, senior catcher Michael Rizzitello (Connetquot, N.Y.) has a team-best .329 batting average and 20 runs batted in. Fellow senior R.J. Going (Islip, N.Y.) has a .286 average in 34 games played while red-shirt junior Robert Morse (Commack, N.Y.) has hit 10 doubles, a home run and 19 RBIs.
- Dowling's offense is not powerful; the Golden Lions have hit just four home runs this season and the team batting average is at .251. The pitching staff has yielded only nine long balls on the season, but Dowling's pitching rotation is holding a 4.51 earned-run average this season.
- Red-shirt freshman Chris Cepeda (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) may get some looks for Rookie of the Year consideration with a 4-0 record and a team-best 2.56 earned-run average. He had a no-decision in his last start, allowing three runs in six-and-a-third innings of a 6-5 loss against Saint Thomas Aquinas College.
