March 16, 2012
AMHERST, Mass. -
Coming off its first victory of the season, the UMass baseball team opens up its Spring Break trip with a three-game set at Old Dominion this Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Mar. 17-19. Game's one and two for the Minutemen (1-3) are set for 2 p.m. starts, while game three is slated for 3 p.m. on Monday.
Pitching Matchups
Game 1 (3/17 - 2 p.m.): RHP Glen Misho (0-1, 15.75 ERA) vs. RHP Greg Tomchick (0-1, 3.29 ERA)
Game 2 (3/18 - 2 p.m.): RHP Dennis Torres (0-1, 1.17 ERA) vs. RHP Ben Tomchick (0-2, 5.49 ERA)
Game 3 (3/19 - 3 p.m.): RHP Joe Popielarczyk (0-0, 1.69 ERA) vs. RHP Phil McCarthy (0-1, 6.50 ERA)
Scouting Old Dominion
Old Dominion enters the series with UMass at 6-10 on the season and has won its last three straight after taking the finale from Delaware (5-3) and both of its games vs. VMI, 13-12 and 8-3.
Among the Monarchs' players with 40 or more at bats on the year, Brandon Shelton leads the way with a .323 average. Chris Baker boasts a team-high four home runs and 15 RBI. As a squad, Old Dominion is batting .258 on the season.
ODU's staff has an earned run average of 5.33 in 147 innings on the mound with 124 strikeouts to 70 walks, with opposing hitters batting .279 against them.
Approaching a Milestone
Head coach Mike Stone enters his 25th season at the helm for UMass two wins shy of his 600th as coach of the Minutemen. He currently holds a record of 598-528-3 (.531).
In his career, which spans 30 seasons (five at Vermont), Stone is 652-618-5 (.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 138 out of 150 games over four seasons at UMass, logging 132 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. Opponents are just 1-for-5 in stolen base attempts against him this season.
A .299 career hitter, Conley begins his senior campaign with 132 hits, 75 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 six 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 four of the Minutemen's games thus far. Picard has an active four-game hitting streak.
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 .294 (5-for-17) through four games and has reached base safely in all four 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 and now is a perfect 6-for-6 after going 3-for-3 once again at Hartford. Cusick is leading UMass with a .333 (5-for-15) average and six runs scored.
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 (12) 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.
Ron Wallace earned his first career victory at Hartford on Mar. 13.
Adam Picard hit his first career home run at Hartford on Mar. 13.
Up Next
The Minutemen will play at Monmouth on Wednesday, Mar. 21, before opening Atlantic 10 action at Fordham next weekend.
