Baseball Wraps Up, Looking Ahead To Tournament

by Daryl Jeannetti
edited by Joseph Landini

The Franklin Pierce Ravens baseball team wrapped up their regular season last Saturday with a doubleheader sweep of Adelphi University, placing the Ravens second in the Northeast 10 conference.

Pappas Field will be the site for 2010 Northeast 10 tournament

The second place finish for the Ravens was high enough to have them host the Northeast 10 conference tournament for the fifth consecutive year. Having only been a part of the Northeast 10 for six years, this is an unheralded accomplishment for Coach Jayson King. King, who earned his 400 career coaching win earlier this season, led the Ravens to a 33-12-1 mark throughout the regular season, and a 19-6-1 record in the conference.

When asked what he thought about the season, sophomore Issac Wenrich said, “The season begins on Thursday against Adelphi, everything we’ve done to this point is in the past.” Wenrich was speaking about the Ravens first round match up against Adelphi University. Wenrich was a key contributor on offense for the Ravens this season prior to being held back

by injuries. He will again be leaned on in the playoffs.

The real story of the Ravens this season was the emergence of their young freshman and junior pitcher Jose Macias who spent his first season with Ravens as their starting short stop before making the switch to the mound this season. Macias was recently tagged the NE-10 pitcher of the year posting a perfect 8-0 record with a conference low 0.93 earned run average. As for the freshman, pitchers Joe Flynn, Rob Blanc and center fielder Nick Lacroix were named to the all rookie team for the NE-10 Conference.

These however were not the only Ravens to receive post season accolades as junior transfer Phil Hendricks (.367 2 homeruns 34 rbi) and sophomore catcher Mike Dowd (318 6 homeruns 29 rbi) accompanied Macias on the first team all-conference list. The Ravens were also well represented in the second team, with third basemen Derek Ingui, outfielder Mike Munoz, and right handers Mike Adams and Rob Nicholas.

NE-10 Pitcher of the year Jose Macias will get the ball for Ravens on Saturday of the tournament

When asked about how he felt this season went, senior Captain Cody Kauffman said, “The season went well we came up short of winning the league, but that’s why the playoffs are so great it gives us a chance to accomplish that. The playoffs are the place where every team aspires to be and it may the same game but it’s the same game with some added excitement.”

Looking ahead the Ravens will look to knock off top seed Southern Connecticut State to capture the team’s fifth NE-10 title in six years. The tournament begins this Thursday as the Ravens play host to Adelphi University, the game will be held at 330 on Pappas Field where the Ravens are an impressive 20-3 this season.