ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (May 6, 2016) - The final weekend of the baseball regular season has finally arrived, and the Molloy College baseball team can see the postseason getting ever closer. With a 12-8 record in ECC action and just four games remaining, one victory over Saint Thomas Aquinas in four contests this weekend will put the maroon and white into the East Coast Conference Tournament after a one-year hiatus; the Spartans, however, are the three-time defending conference champions and the third-best team in the East Region. The action begins Friday (May 6) at Mitchel Field and will return to Uniondale on Sunday (May 8) after a doubleheader in between to be played up in Pomona, N.Y.
About the Lions
- At 29-16, Molloy is on the precipice of achieving its fifth 30-win season in program history and third such campaign under Head Coach
Joe Fucarino. The Lions last won 30 games in 2011, when the team posted a 31-20 record and won the ECC Regular Season Championship as well as the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference crown.
- Entering the final weekend, sophomore first baseman
Angelo Navetta (Staten Island, N.Y.) has a .382 batting average which is nearly a full 30 points higher than the competition. Navetta is also in the top-five in RBIs (30) in the conference with teammate
Anthony Alberghina (Staten Island, N.Y.) ranking third with 33 runs batted in on the year.
- Junior pitcher
Ronald Bauer (Hicksville, N.Y.) was named a semifinalist for the D2 Pitcher of the Year Award---also known as the Brett Tomko Award---on Thursday (May 5). Bauer has a 7-0 record and is the only pitcher in the ECC with seven victories on the season. His earned-run average of 0.93 is also the only sub-1.00 ERA among qualifying pitchers in the conference statistics.
- As a team, Molloy ranks first in five major hitting categories, including runs scored (300), hits (483), runs batted in (253) and batting average (.312). The Lions rank second in the ECC in a couple of pitching categories, as well: earned run average (3.92) and strikeouts (295).
Concerning the Spartans
- Saint Thomas Aquinas has already clinched a postseason berth by virtue of its 13-6 record in ECC play to this point. The Spartans will have four games with Molloy followed by a one-game stint with Bridgeport on Monday (May 9) to close out its season.
- STAC ranks first as a team in seven major offensive stat categories including home runs (27), walks (211), on-base percentage (.394) and slugging percentage (.412). The Spartans also lead the conference in the following pitching stat categories: ERA (2.85) strikeouts (320), strikeouts per game (7.53) and earned runs allowed (121).
- The Spartans' pitching staff has been buoyed by the performance of senior right-hander Matt Kostalos (Staten Island, N.Y.), who has an unblemished 6-0 record with a 1.61 earned-run average. Kostalos is dominant when he is on the bump as his 86 strikeouts and 10.65 strikeouts per game are tops in the ECC. Junior southpaw Sam Vincenzo (St. Clairsville, Ohio) is fifth in the conference with a 2.70 ERA and junior George Navadel (El Paso, Texas) has collected 11 saves in his first season with the Spartans after transferring in from New Mexico Military Institute.
- Sophomore outfielder Giovanni Dingcong (Daly City, Calif.) leads the team with 27 RBIs after winning a bevy of awards in 2015. Dingcong was ECC Rookie of the Year as well as a member of the Daktronics/DII CCA, NCBWA and ABCA All-Region squads last spring. Meanwhile, seniors Richard Cesca (Congers, N.Y.) and Nicholas Gargan (Nesconset, N.Y.) have each slugged five home runs to pace STAC at the plate.
