Somerset, NJ -- The Northeast Conference baseball coaches suggest that Bryant and Sacred Heart are the two teams to beat until proven otherwise.
The two programs who have clashed in each of the last three NEC Tournament finals took the top-two spots in the 2016 NEC Baseball Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
Bryant, which has won four consecutive NEC regular season crowns, pulled in four first-place votes to finish atop the annual poll and earn the moniker of “preseason favorite” for the fourth year in a row.
2016 NEC BASEBALL
Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. Bryant (4)
2. Sacred Heart (3)
3. Wagner
4. Central Connecticut
5. LIU Brooklyn
6. Fairleigh Dickinson
7. Mount St. Mary’s
First-place votes in parentheses ( ). |
Meanwhile, 2015 NEC Tournament champion Sacred Heart earned the remaining three top nods and finished second in the predicted order-of-finish. Nick Giaquinto’s Pioneers have advanced to the NEC Tournament championship round in each of the past six seasons.
Coming off a second-place regular season finish in 2015, Wagner finds itself holding the No. 3 spot in the poll ahead of Central Connecticut in fourth. CCSU, which uncharacteristically missed out on qualifying for the postseason tournament last spring, has won four league champions during skipper Charlie Hickey’s 16-year tenure.
The coaches pegged LIU Brooklyn for fifth place in 2016 followed by Fairleigh Dickinson in sixth. Mount St. Mary’s, which saw its postseason hopes end in a loss to FDU on the final day on the 2015 season, rounded out the preseason poll in seventh. LIU and Mount wound up finishing 1.0 game behind Fairleigh Dickinson for the fourth, and final available, berth into the 2015 NEC Tournament.
The Northeast Conference will once again host its four-team postseason event at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, CT, marking the fifth time in six years that the league award its automatic NCAA Tournament bid at the Home of the Connecticut Tigers (Detroit Tigers’ Single A affiliate). The top-four finishers in the NEC regular season standings will earn a berth into the double-elimination championship bracket and compete for a ticket to NCAA Regional.
NEC Tournament games will unfold May 26-28 with an “if necessary” contest slated for May 29.
Steve Owens’ Bulldogs, who have yet to miss out on the NEC Tournament since becoming eligible in 2013, captured an unprecedented fourth straight regular season title by winning 17 of 24 conference contests last spring.
Bryant has posted first-place finishes in five of its six years competing as a NEC member. The Bulldogs return eight starting position players, four of whom earned all-NEC honors last year.
Left-handed slugger Robby Rinn (Warwick, RI) is back at first base while right-handed hitting Brandon Bingel (Peabody, MA) joins him across the diamond at third. The corner infielders each hit seven home runs apiece, good for second place on the league leader board, en route to earning spots on the All-NEC First Team.
Second baseman Cole Fabio (Mahwah, NJ) played his way to first team honors, too, batting .347 (4th in NEC) with 69 hits (tied for 1st) and 45 runs (2nd).
Five hitters finished the 2015 season with a .310 batting average or higher and all five will appear on the lineup card in 2016. In addition to Fabio, Rinn (.332), Bingel (.317), Matt Albanese (East Haddam, CT) (.317) and Buck McCarthy (Saugus, MA) (.310) all hit for average.
Sophomore James Karinchak, the reigning NEC Rookie of the Year, is poised to lead the Black and Gold's pitching staff after putting together a phenomenal freshman season. He led the NEC in win (8) and strikeouts (74) while posting a 3.24 ERA in 77.2 innings. Karinchak tied a program record with six complete games and also posted three shutouts.
Bryant, Fairleigh Dickinson and LIU Brooklyn will be the first to lift the lid off the 2016 schedule. All three will throw their first pitches of the season on February 19. Bryant (Army) and Fairleigh Dickinson (UMES) will play neutral site contests, while LIU visits Incarnate Word.
AROUND THE HORN
- Bryant owns an all-time 131-44 (.749) record in NEC regular season games.
- Central Connecticut has an all-NEC arm on its starting staff. RHP Brett Susi (Southington, CT) registered a 4-2 record and 3.53 ERA, credentials that earned him a spot on the Second Team. Senior southpaw Casey Brown (Wenonah, NJ) enjoyed a successful summer with the Vermont Mountaineers, pitching to a 1.25 ERA and earning a spot on the All-NECBL First Team.
- Skipper Gary Puccio has guided Fairleigh Dickinson into the NEC postseason twice in the past four years. The Knights defeated Bryant in the tournament’s opening game last May, marking the program’s first first-day tournament win in more than 20 years. All-NEC second teamers DH Joel Roman (East Hartford, CT) and 2B Dylan Sprague (Brunswick, NY) along with 2015 All-Tournament Team selection OF Shane Siebler (Nazareth, PA) are back in Hackensack for another season.
- LIU Brooklyn returns all-NEC talent in the infield, outfield and on the pitching staff. Junior Tommy Jakubowski (West Deptford, NJ) hit .337 and stole a league-high 18 bases on the way to a first team selection in the outfield. First baseman Mark Hernandez (Miami, FL), who was fourth amongst league leaders in RBI (39), and right-handed hurler Bobby Maxwell (Otisville, NY), who pitched to a 5-2 record and 3.69 ERA, were second teamers last year.
- Mount St. Mary’s graduated its three all-NEC selections from 2015, but the cupboard isn’t exactly bare for Scott Thomson. Two of Mount’s top-four hitters (in terms of batting average) are back from last year’s squad, including outfielder Ryan Owens (Burke, VA) who batted .305.
- Sacred Heart’s five All-Tournament Team selections from the 2015 championship squad are back – RHP James Cooksey (Norwalk, CT), 3B Jesus Medina (New York, NY), PJ DeFilippo (Bridgeport, CT), SS Zack Short (Hurley, NY) and RHP Jason Foley (North Bellmore, NY).
- Wagner skipper Jim Carone is the first man in Northeast Conference history to have a NEC Pitcher of the Year award (2002) and a NEC Coach of the Year award (2015) sitting on his mantle.
- A pair of Louisville Slugger All-Americans return to the Northeast Conference for their sophomore seasons. The aforementioned Karinchak will headline Bryant’s rotation while Anthony Godino (Thornwood, NY) brings his .348 batting average back to Wagner.
About The Northeast Conference
Now in its 35th year, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of 10 institutions of higher learning located throughout six states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to four of the largest markets in the United States - New York (#1), Pittsburgh (#23), Baltimore (#27), and Hartford/New Haven (#30). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 22 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 14 different NCAA Championships. NEC member institutions include Bryant, Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Brooklyn, Mount St. Mary’s, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn, Saint Francis U and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league’s official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Google+, all @NECsports.