Utica, NY - The Utica College baseball team is gearing up to play a pair of nonconference games this week while also taking on conference opponent Keuka in a weekend doubleheader. The Pioneers will head across town to SUNY Poly to take on the Wildcats in a one nine inning game at 4 p.m. On Wednesday UC will take to the road again for another single nine inning game to face SUNY Cobleskill at 3 p.m. Utica is then set to host Keuka on Saturday for a doubleheader before traveling to Keuka Park to take on the Wolves in another doubleheader on Sunday. Saturday and Sunday's game ones will begin at 1 p.m.
Last Time Out: UC traded series sweeps with Houghton College this past weekend. The Pioneers took both Saturday games at home before dropping both games at Houghton on Sunday. With the overall split, the team moved to 9-8 (4-3 Empire 8) while remaining in second place in the conference.
Zac's Attacking: Zac Cronk (Saratoga Springs, NY/Saratoga Central Catholic) has worked his way up the team and conference ranks over the past week. The second baseman went 10-22 over the team's six games last week and was able to climb up to ninth in the Empire 8 with a .405 batting average. He has the seventh best on base percentage in conference at .542 which has helped him come across home 16 times this season.
Can't Touch This: Griffin Baur (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) has already put together five solid starts for UC as the righty owns a 2-1 record while ranking fifth in the conference with a 4.84 ERA. Baur has also been blowing the ball by hitters all season long. His 32 strikeouts and 10 strikeouts looking both rank second in the conference while logging 8.1 less innings than the Empire 8 leader. Baur also nearly has a 3/1 K/BB ratio while striking out about 1.5 batters an inning.
Heat Miser: Since the calendar flipped to April,
Joe Battista (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls) has been on a different level. The senior has recorded a hit in seven of his last eight games while recording multiple hits in three of those games. He also finds himself tied for fifth in the Empire 8 with a season batting average of .431 as well as ranking fifth with his 22 hits. "Joey Bats" has had his fair share of timely at bats as he ranks third in the E8 with 20 RBIs while also ranking top-10 in the conference with a .530 on base percentage.
A Look at Poly: The Wildcats are 0-2 this season with both losses coming on April 6 against Cazenovia. Poly lost the first game of the series 6-1 before game two ended in the 6th inning due to darkness 11-0 in favor of Cazenovia. The team hit .136 in those two games while Alexander Bonacci went 3-7 for the Wildcats. Although the pitching staff recorded a 11.08 ERA in those games, they were able to set down 14 batters via strikeout in 13 defensive innings.
Cobleskill's Report: The Tigers are 3-1 overall this season and coming off a sweep over Cazenovia on April 10. They have hit .319 as a team while Jayson Maxwell is hitting .500 with four RBIs. Nick Thomas has supplied contact and power at the plate for the Tigers as he's second on the team hitting .471 while leading the team with three home runs. The pitching staff allows 4.35 earned runs per game while allowing opponents a .315 batting average. Jarrod Williams (1-1) has started two games for Cobleskill this season, pitching a team high 10.2 innings with a 2.53 ERA
Scouting Keuka: The Wolves (2-4, 2-4 Empire 8) offense has carried the team through six games. While the unit has hit .274 with a .394 on base percentage, the pitching staff owns a 14.44 ERA and have allowed a .394 batting average to opponents. The pitchers have also given up seven long balls in 43 innings and have walked 37 batters while striking out just 29. At the plate, Ryan Seales and RJ Murphy have come out of the gates hot, both owning a .556 batting average.
