March 30, 2012
AMHERST, Mass. -
In the midst of an eight-game homestand, the UMass baseball team will play host to Albany this Saturday and Sunday, March 31 and April 1, on Earl Lorden Field, before facing UConn on Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. Saturday, the Minutemen (4-8) will take on the Great Danes at 2 p.m., followed by a doubleheader at noon on Sunday. The teams were originally scheduled to play two on Saturday beginning at noon, but pushed back the series due to precipitation in the forecast.
Pitching Matchups
Saturday (2 p.m.): RHP Dennis Torres (1-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. RHP Zach Kraham (0-4, 6.75 ERA)
Sunday (Game 1, 12 p.m.): RHP Glen Misho (0-2, 7.27 ERA) vs. LHP Sean Lucas (1-3, 5.53 ERA)
Sunday (Game 2, TBA): RHP Joe Popielarczyk (2-0, 0.92 ERA) vs. RHP Kasceim Graham (1-3, 5.52 ERA)
Monday (3 p.m.): TBA vs. TBA
Scouting Albany
UAlbany comes into the weekend series with UMass holding a record of 5-16-1, coming off a loss and a tie in a doubleheader vs. Cornell this past Tuesday, 5-2 and 3-3.
Mike Tirri (.333) leads four Great Danes' hitters who hold batting averages of .303 and higher. Josh Nethaway (.328) follows with a team-high 17 runs scored, while Nolan Gaige has driven in a squad-best 13, aided by five doubles, three triples and one home run.
The UAlbany pitching staff has a 6.36 earned run average through 182.2 innings on the hill with 102 walks and 110 strikeouts. Opposing hitters are batting .319 against the Great Danes.
UMass leads the all-time series vs. Albany, 2-0. The Minutemen won a neutral site meeting with the Great Danes last season on Apr. 2 at Fordham, 4-2. Current senior Joe Popielarczyk earned the win in that contest, working six innings and striking out five.
Scouting Connecticut
Connecticut enters the weekend with a record of 13-11 and will face Seton Hall on Sunday afternoon before coming to Amherst on Monday.
Collectively the Huskies are batting .290 on the year, led by L.J. Mazzilli's .358 batting average, 23 runs scored, nine doubles, six homers and 21 RBI.
UConn's pitching staff holds a 4.10 ERA through 208.1 innings, limiting opponents to a .245 average. The squad has fanned 167 batters to just 83 walks.
The Huskies lead the all-time series against the Minutemen 82-72-3. UMass last posted a win in the series in 2008.
Reaching A Milestone
Head coach Mike Stone is in his 25th season at the helm for UMass and picked up the 600th win as coach of the Minutemen on Mar. 23 as UMass rallied late from a 4-1 deficit at Fordham to take the squads' Atlantic 10 opener, 5-4. He currently holds a record of 601-533-3 (.530).
In his career, which spans 30 seasons (five at Vermont), Stone is 655-623-5 (.512)
McLam Emerging As Offensive Threat
Rob McLam is having a breakout season as a sophomore, currently second on the team with a .355 average with 11 hits in 31 at bats through 11 games. He has a double, five RBI and four stolen bases to his credit, as well.
As a freshman in 23 at bats, McLam had seven hits, one double and three RBI. He equaled his RBI total from last season in one game this year, at Hartford on Mar. 13. Against the Hawks, he drove in the tying and winning runs in the eighth inning and finished the afternoon 3-for-3 with three RBI and two stolen bases.
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 145 out of 158 games over four seasons at UMass, logging 139 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 13-for-24 in stolen base attempts against him this season.
A .294 career hitter, Conley begins his senior campaign with 140 hits, 79 runs scored and 71 RBI. He was an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie selection in 2009.
Popielarczyk Earns Pair Of Honors
Senior Joe Popielarczyk was named the Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week and co-UMass Athlete of the Week on Mar. 26. Both honors were the first for the Florence, Mass., native and first for a member of the Minutemen this season.
Popielarczyk went 2-0 in his pair of starts last week, pitching in a combined 8-0 shutout at Old Dominion and throwing his first career complete game in UMass' 3-1 Atlantic 10 series-clinching game three victory at Fordham this past Sunday.
Over the two outings, Popielarczyk threw a total of 14.1 innings, including 13.1 consecutive shutout frames, and allowed just one earned run for a 0.63 earned run average on the week. He struck out 14 and walked nine, while none of the nine hits allowed were for extra bases.
Against the Monarchs on Mar. 19, Popielarczyk worked 5.1 innings and let up only two hits. He followed up in his start at Fordham on Mar. 25 by striking out a career-high 10 batters and holding the Rams to three hits through the first eight innings of the contest.
Through three starts on the year, Popielarczyk holds a 0.92 ERA, limiting opponents to a .224 average and two runs in 19.2 innings of work with 12 walks and 16 strikeouts.
Streaks
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 13 straight after ending 2011 by reaching safely in the final two games.
Sophomore Rob McLam has reached base in nine straight contests, while sophomore Nick Sanford and junior Rich Graef currently have active six-game hitting streaks, the team's longest streaks of the season.
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. The pair has accounted for eight of UMass' 14 extra base hits on the season, Cusick with a team-high five doubles and Picard with two doubles and a home run.
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, and followed up by going 3-for-3 once again at Hartford. As a freshman in 2010 he totaled eight stolen bases in 35 games and has already surpassed that in 12 games. Cusick is currently 9-for-10 on the season on the basepaths, ranking sixth in the A-10 in steals. Cusick currently leads the squad with 11 runs scored on the year.
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 (14) 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. Off to a great start to his senior campaign, Sorenson has allowed just one run through six appearances, a total of 11.1 innings, and is holding opposing hitters to a .220 average. He has fanned nine batters, while walking just two, including the first five he faced at Old Dominion on Mar. 19 for a new career high. He currently has three saves on the year, already half of his total from last season.
The Minutemen have also bolstered the pitching staff with the addition of six freshman arms.
Through 12 games, nine UMass pitchers hold ERAs of 3.09 or lower. In the loss to Holy Cross this past Tuesday, five relievers combined to throw seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit in that span.
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.
Conor LeBlanc made the first appearance of his career at Hartford on Mar. 13 and retired both batters he faced.
Tim Stoops threw 1.2 hitless innings in his collegiate debut at Old Dominion on Mar. 17 and struck out three. He has not allowed a hit thus far in two appearances and has fanned five.
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.
Cassidy made his first collegiate start at Monmouth on Mar. 21.
Paul Yanakopulos appeared in his first career game as a defensive replacement on Mar. 24 at Fordham.
Up Next
UMass will close out its homestand with an Atlantic 10 series against La Salle next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 5-7. Games 1 and 2 are set for 3 p.m. starts, while game three will be at noon. 
