March 12, 2012
AMHERST, Mass. -
Coming off its season-opening weekend at #18 UCF the UMass baseball team returns to the Northeast and will be in action at Hartford on Tuesday afternoon, Mar. 13, at 3 p.m. The Minutemen will be in search of their first victory of the season after a pair of one-run losses in the past two games.
Scouting Hartford
Hartford enters Tuesday's contest with UMass holding a 1-10 record through 11 games. The lone win for the Hawks came vs. Central Connecticut on Mar. 7, 5-2.
James Alfonso is one of four players hitting .300 or above, currently batting a team-best .371 (13-for-35) with seven runs scored. Andy Drexel (.341) has contributed seven RBI and eight runs scored and has two of the squad's seven home runs on the year. Simon Kudernatsch (.311) has a team-leading eight RBI. Collectively, the Hawks are batting .274 with 18 doubles and seven homers.
Hartford's pitching staff holds a 7.99 earned run average through 89 innings of work with 60 strikeouts to 78 walks and an opponent batting average of .319.
UMass is 20-9 all-time against Hartford, including a 15-0 victory on Mar. 31 last season.
Approaching a Milestone
Head coach Mike Stone enters his 25th season at the helm for UMass three wins shy of his 600th as coach of the Minutemen. He currently holds a record of 597-528-3 (.531).
In his career, which spans 30 seasons (five at Vermont), Stone is 651-618-5 (.513).
Conley A Mainstay For Minutemen Behind The Plate
Senior catcher Tom Conley is in his fourth year as a starter behind the plate for the Minutemen having played a possible 137 out of 149 games over four seasons at UMass, logging 131 starts.
Conley is the top returning hitter from the 2011 squad, posting a .299 average with 44 runs scored, 30 RBI, seven doubles, one triple and two home runs last season.
Primarily hitting fifth in the lineup as a junior, Conley struck out just 12 times in 147 at bats. He ranked second on the team in multi-hit games (13), third on the team in multi-RBI games (8), third in batting average and fourth in RBI.
Defensively, Conley threw out 24 runners on the base paths, which ranked him third in the Atlantic 10, while picking off two, as well. This past weekend, UCF runners were 0-for-3 against him in stolen base attempts.
A .295 career hitter, Conley begins his senior campaign with 132 hits, 74 runs scored and 67 RBI. He was an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie selection in 2009.
Strong Starts
Senior Joe Popielarczyk and junior Dennis Torres both performed well in their 2012 season debuts pitching at #18 UCF. The duo combined to throw 13 innings and gave up just two earned runs. The pair logged six of UMass' eight strikeouts on the weekend, Torres with four and Popielarczyk with two.
Active Streaks Entering 2012
Several returning Minutemen ended the 2011 season with active hitting streaks including junior Anthony Serino, who extended his six-game streak from last year to eight by hitting safely in the first two games of 2012 before going 0-for-3 in the series finale at UCF. The eight-game streak is a new career best for the outfielder.
Senior Tom Conley has now reached base in five straight after ending 2011 by reaching safely in the final two games. Conley is joined by sophomore Nick Sanford and Adam Picard as all three have reached base safely in all thee of the Minutemen's games thus far.
Core Of Sophomores
Among UMass' returnees from the 2011 squad are 10 sophomores, including seven position players who saw time in the field as freshman. Those seven collectively played in 171 games with 109 starts and had a total of 407 at bats. Three--Dylan Begin, Josh Messier and Nick Sanford--started 20 or more games. Begin went 26-for-100 with 13 RBI and 12 runs scored with five doubles and one home run in 29 games with 26 starts.
Also not included in those 10 are two more players who missed time in 2011 due to injury. Redshirt sophomore Ryan Cusick returns looking to build off a freshman campaign in 2010 in which he started 34 games and hit .297 (44-for-148) with 34 runs scored en-route to an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team selection. Redshirt freshman Adam Picard was off to a promising start before suffering a season-ending injury in 2011, logging six hits, with three doubles, in 21 at bats over seven games.
Picking Up Where They Left Off
Both coming back off of injuries, redshirt freshman Adam Picard and redshirt sophomore Ryan Cusick have gotten off to solid starts to 2012.
Picard is hitting .308 (4-for-13) through three games and has reached base safely in all three contests thus far.
Cusick capped off the weekend at UCF by going 2-for-3 in game three and swiped three bags, one shy of the program single game record for stolen bases. As a freshman in 2010 he totaled eight stolen bases in 35 games.
Arms Aplenty
Reaping the benefits of having a young pitching staff in 2011, UMass returns 285 of its 411.1 innings from last season, including seven who started on the mound.
Among those back for 2011 is senior Glen Misho. Misho led the Minutemen in wins (5), starts (12), innings pitched (82.2) and strikeouts (42).
Junior Dennis Torres started eight games in his first collegiate season, throwing a total of 46.0 innings and striking out 31. He is back in the starting rotation this year.
UMass' bullpen ace is senior Leif Sorenson who led the Minutemen with a 3.08 earned run average last season. Sorenson, who came to UMass as a sophomore after Vermont discontinued its baseball program, is the program's all-time saves leader (11) and holds the No. 4 and No. 5 marks on the single season saves list at UMass, including a career-best six in a team-high 21 appearances in 2011.
The Minutemen have also bolstered the pitching staff with the addition of six freshman arms.
Career Firsts
Freshman Jeff Cavanaro recorded his first collegiate hit on Mar. 9 at UCF, a pinch hit single. He started his first collegiate game on Mar. 11 vs. the Knights.
Freshmen pitchers Tim Cassidy, Andrew Grant, and Dan Stoops all made their first appearances of their careers with the Minutemen in the UCF series, as well.
Up Next
The Minutemen will begin their Spring Break week with a three-game series at Old Dominion. Game one is set for Saturday, Mar. 17, at 2 p.m. 
