Baseball Heads to Lowell For America East Tournament
AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT CENTRAL I AE.TV I LIVE STATS
ALBANY, N.Y.— The University at Albany baseball team returns to post season play for the first time since 2013, where they will take on the number four team, UMBC Retrievers, in the first round of the America East Tournament beginning at noon at LeLacheur Park.
WELCOME BACK
This year all eligible America East Conference teams were given a spot in the post-season tournament. After finishing 9-14 in conference play this year, the Great Danes were given the number five seed and will face off against UMBC, who finished in the four spot and 13-10 in the conference. The winner will go onto play top-seeded Binghamton, who closed out the regular season at 19-5 in America East action, as well as five games ahead of second place Hartford (14-9 America East).
UALBANY IN THE AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT
This will mark the Great Danes ninth time entering the America East Tournament since 2004. UAlbany has won the tournament once as the No. 3 seed in 2007 and advanced to the NCAA Regional in Fayetteville, Ark.
SCOUTING UALBANY
HEAD COACH: Jon Mueller (Eckerd College (Fla.) '92), 17th season
THE COACH: Jon Mueller enters his 17th season as head coach of the University at Albany baseball team in 2016. The Stillwater, N.Y. native has had proven success as both a player and coach throughout his career. Mueller is first among UAlbany's career leaders with 328 coaching victories, and was named the America East Coach of the Year in 2004. He also led the Danes to the program's first America East Conference tournament championship title and NCAA appearance in 2007. Mueller has produced dozens of all-conference standouts and has had six players selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft under his direction.
OVERVIEW: The Danes are coming off a 1-2 weekend against the No. 3 seeded Stony Brook, dropping game one and three, 7-2 and 4-0, while winning the second game, 1-0 on a double steal. Batting .263 as a team, the Danes are led by Matt Hinchy, who has put together a .348 batting average along with 28 runs scored and 33 RBI's. Local prospect Kyle Sacks is currently batting .320 with 32 runs scored and 28 RBI's and has played in all 49 games this season. On the mound, the Danes have put together a 4.92 ERA, including a team low of 2.04 from freshman Dominic Savino. Brendan Ryan (5-4, 3.34 ERA) will be taking the mound for UAlbany in the first round against UMBC.
SCOUTING UMBC
HEAD COACH: Bob Mumma (UMBC '94), 5th season
THE COACH: Bob Mumma enters his fifth season as the Retrievers head coach after being promoted from the assistant coach position in 2011. Last year he led UMBC to a 34-20 record, the first time the team won more than 30 wins since 2002. As a player he helped lead UMBC to their first ever NCAA Division 1 tournament at-large bid in 1992. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1992 and played two years in the team's system. He became a full-time assistant coach in 2005 after previously serving as an academic counselor in the UMBC Athletics EXCELL program.
OVERVIEW: The Retrievers took care of the Hartford Hawks this past weekend, winning two out of three, including wins of 7-6 and 13-4 in the series finale, but losing game two with a score of 6-4. Senior shortstop Kevin Lachance has put together a solid season with a batting average of .390 and has 50 runs scored and 29 RBI's as well as six home runs. Junior Hunter Dolshun is batting a .359 with a team leading 13 home runs and has 36 runs scored and 47 RBI's. Overall the team is batting .294. Defensively, senior RHP Conrad Wozniak is 6-3 overall with a 3.12 ERA with 52 strikeouts and will likely be taking the mound against the Danes on Wednesday.
ENTERING THE RECORD BOOKS
Senior Will Miller has recorded four triples this season, putting him in a tie for sixth. Redshirt Junior Stephen Woods has totaled 81 strikeouts this season, which is good for third place, and trails second by one K. Freshman Dominic Savino has fit in nicely into the closer role for the Danes and has eight saves this season, putting him in third place, following his save this past weekend in the 1-0 victory over Stony Brook.
FOLLOW ALONG FOR THE RIDE
The America East will be displaying all of the tournament events on multiple social media outlets, beginning with the awards reception, which will take place on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at LeLacheur Park. The reception will be streamed via Facebook Live on the America East page. Press conferences will be live streamed through Periscope as well as on Twitter. All games will be available for free on AmericaEast.TV and live stats will be available at the following URL address: http://www.sidearmstats.com/lowell/baseball/ and live updates of the Danes will be on the team's personal twitter account.
NEXT UP
If UAlbany beats UMBC, they will go onto play top-seeded Binghamton beginning at noon on Thursday, while a loss will put them in the loser's bracket to face the loser of the Stony Brook-Maine game, which will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
