2013 Baseball All-Conference and Award Winners Announced
The Empire 8 Athletic Conference has announced the 2013 Baseball All-Conference teams and major award winners. Ithaca College swept the top four honors as junior
Tim Locastro was named Player of the Year, senior
Pat Lemmo was honored as Pitcher of the Year and first year
Matt Connolly was voted the Rookie of the Year. Head Coach
George Valesente and his staff of
Frank Fazio, John McNally and
Geoff Wright have been named the Coaching Staff of the Year. All awards are voted on by the conference coaches.
2013 Baseball All-Conference Teams
Valesente and his staff led the Bombers to their 11th Empire 8 title in 13 years with a 10-1 conference record. Ithaca started its season at 4-4 before going on an 18-game winning streak in a span of a month. With a current 32-6 record, the Bombers have moved up to 10
th in the latest D3baseball.com poll and eighth in the Division III rankings by baseballnews.com. The 32 wins marks the first time since 2006 that the team has won 30 games. Ithaca will close out its regular season on May 11 and hope for an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament (bracket announced on May 12 at 10pm at ncaa.com).
Locastro has started all 38 games and is hitting .430 including a .323 average in conference play. Offensively, he has totaled 55 hits, 10 doubles, 28 RBIs and 32 stolen bases so far this season. Defensively, the shortstop has recorded 79 putouts and 120 assists.
Lemmo is 8-0 with a team-low 1.70 earned run average in 10 appearances on the mound. Three of his appearances came against conference competition, where he threw two complete games and recorded one solo shutout. To date, Lemmo has thrown four complete games and struck out 54 batters in 79.1 innings.
Connolly, a utility player who has seen time at first and third base while also serving as designated hitter, has started 17-of-29 games played. He is hitting .390 with five doubles and one triple to his name to go along with 16 runs scored and 14 RBI. Connolly is perfect defensively as he has not recorded an error in 137 chances (125 putouts and 12 assists).