Ithaca Edges Fisher in Empire 8 Baseball Poll
Ithaca College enters the 2014 season as the league favorite as picked by the coaches. Close behind the Bombers in the coaches' preseason poll is St. John Fisher College. The coaches voted Stevens Institute of Technology and Utica College to finish third and fourth, respectively.
Who’s Back?
The Bombers enter the 2014 season ranked fifth nationally in the D3baseball.com preseason poll following a record-setting campaign in 2013. Ithaca went 41-8 in 2013 and finished third at the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships. The Bombers set a program record for victories in a season with 41, and its 18-game winning streak during the regular season was the second-longest in program history.
Senior John Prendergast highlights the list of returners for the Bombers. He was a third team all-America selection by the American Baseball Coaches Association following his junior season, in which the starting pitcher went 10-0 in 12 starts with a 2.04 earned-run average. He pitched four complete games and threw 83.2 innings, yielding just 73 hits and 12 walks. He had 55 strikeouts.
The 2014 Cardinals feature a strong returning group of student-athletes as well as 13 freshman on the roster that will look to get Fisher another 25-plus win season, which has been eclipsed the last four seasons. The Cardinals will be led by senior pitcher Justin D’Amato, a two-time Empire 8 Pitcher of the Year, who was recently selected as a preseason all-American. He led Fisher to an ECAC Championship in 2013 after posting a 7-2 record to go along with a 1.48 earned run average. He tallied 70 strikeouts in 68 innings.
Stevens will ride the arms of an experienced pitching staff, solid returning bats in the lineup and a traditionally good-fielding defense. Headlining the list of returners is all conference and All-Region selection Dan Allen. Allen serves as a utility player with time in the outfield, at first base and on the mound. He hit .343 in 140 at bats with 40 runs batted in and 32 runs scored. On the bump, Allen was a perfect 6-for-6 in save opportunities and also won two games out of the bullpen.
Utica returns second-team all-conference utility player Vincent Burillo. He started 33-of-34 games for UC and was second on the team in RBI (16) and third in hits (23), runs scored (14) and total bases (31). On the season, he made four starts on the mound and pitched 23 innings.
The Highlanders begin their second year as an NCAA provisional member and will complete a full league schedule. However, games against the Highlanders will not impact conference records/standings. Michael Knapp had a standout rookie campaign for Houghton en route to earning second team all-conference. The infielder produced 60 assists from second base and shortstop with a .341 batting average. He led the squad with a .450 on base percentage.
Coaching Change
Joe Milazzo takes over as head coach of the Utica Pioneers after spending the last 33 years coaching at both the collegiate and high school levels.
Milazzo has spent time as a head baseball coach at Notre Dame High School (1981-1989), Herkimer County Community College (1990) and Mohawk Valley Community College (1991-2002). From 2002-2010 he was the varsity baseball assistant coach at Notre Dame and he has spent the last two seasons at Mohawk Valley Community College as the head softball coach.
New on the Horizon
The 2015 season will mark the inclusion of Elmira College as a competing baseball program. Corey Paluga has been appointed as the head coach of the Soaring Eagles and will look to build a program that can be competitive in the E8 and Division III. Paluga is familiar with the E8 as he served as an assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator since 2009 for Stevens.
Dates to remember
The 2014 season gets started the weekend of Feb. 22-23 for Stevens and Fisher, while Houghton, Ithaca and Utica won’t throw out the first pitch until March. Conference play starts at the end of March with teams playing a four-game series.
A closer look
For more information, visit any of the participating schools' websites or go to the Empire 8 home on the Internet at
www.empire8.com. Don't forget to become a fan of the Empire 8 on
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2014 Empire 8 Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll
|
Ithaca College (3 first place votes) |
9 pts |
|
St. John Fisher College (1) |
7 |
|
Stevens Institute of Technology |
5 |
|
Utica College |
3 |