Utica, NY – The Utica College baseball team will be on the road for a crucial three-game set against E8 foe Stevens this weekend. Game one of Saturday's doubleheader will begin at 5 p.m., before the team's finish up the series on Sunday at 12 p.m.
Live Options: Stevens will be providing live stats and video for the series this weekend. Visit
http://www.sidearmstats.com/stevens/baseball/ for statistics and
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/stevens/ to watch the games live.
Last Time Out: The Pioneers were swept, 0-3, in a series against St. John Fisher the last time out. UC pushed game one of the set to extra innings, as the game was tied 6-6 after the seventh, but an offensive explosion from Fisher in the top of the eighth put the game away. The junior third baseman,
Tim Quinlan (Monroe, CT/Masuck), went 6-for-10 at the plate in the series with four RBI's and three runs scored. Teammate
Tom Carrigan (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) tallied 5 RBI's in the matchup, which included a three RBI, base clearing double in game three.
Hitting Leaders: Matthew Fitzgerald (Clinton, NY/Notre Dame) currently leads the team and the Empire 8 with his batting average of .388. Teammates
Ryan Palmer (Verona, NY/VVS) and
Christian Tiffin (Sherrill, NY/VVS) are not far behind, hitting .368 and .362 respectively. Palmer and
Jake Ryan (Kingston, NY/Kingston) are tied with 32 hits on the season to lead UC. The third baseman,
Tim Quinlan (Monroe, CT/Masuck), leads the Pioneers in doubles (9), home runs (3), RBI's (21), and slugging (.578).
The Pitching Staff: Griffin Baur (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) (4-1) has seen a team-high 35.2 innings of action on his way to becoming the team leader with 33 strikeouts. Baur has thrown one complete game and keeps opponents to a .252 batting average while he is on the hill. Senior reliever
Brett Sarnowski (Scotia, NY/Scotia-Glenville) (1-3) is second on the team with 24 strikeouts.
Justin Shabman (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Kennedy Catholic) has earned himself the best ERA on the staff, 2.70, with 20 full innings pitched on the season. Shabman has struck out 10 batters this year and leads UC with two saves.
Conference Standings: Utica is on the outside looking in prior to this weekend's set of game, as the team is in fifth place in the Empire 8 Standings. With an in-conference mark of 4-8, UC has work to do in order to take a top four spot in the conference to earn a berth into the E8 Tournament. The full conference standings are as follows: 1. Stevens (11-3 E8), 2. Ithaca (10-7 E8), 3. Fisher (9-3 E8), 4. Houghton (8-7 E8), 5. Utica (4-8 E8), 6. Canton (3-7 E8), 7. Elmira (2-12 E8). The Pioneers have six conference games remaining on the schedule with matchups against Stevens and Canton still to be played.
Scouting Stevens: The Ducks are currently first in the conference with an overall mark of 20-14 and a record of 11-3 in E8 competition. Stevens split a recent doubleheader against Oneonta, losing game one 9-8 before coming back in game two for the 10-5 victory. Alex Detweiler leads the team with a .357 batting average and 38 RBI's so far this season. Teammate Donny Gherardi is batting .317, tallying a team-high nine doubles to go with 23 RBI's. Pitchers Carlie Ruegger and Roy Iversen are a combined 9-2 on the mound for Stevens. Ruegger is joined by Danny Poidomani and Quinn DiPasquale as three of the top four strikeout pitchers in the conference. Ruegger is second in the league with 70 strikeouts, Poidomani is right behind him with 65, and DiPasquale is fourth in the E8 with 62.
Looking Ahead: On Tuesday, May 1st UC will play host to Hamilton College for the annual Jackie Robinson Game to honor one of baseball's greatest icons. The game is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m.
