Previewing the Golden Knights

The College of Saint Rose arrives at this point in its history aiming to forge its own identity while also never losing sight of its long and proud lineage that includes four NCAA Tournament appearances during the last decade and a trip to the NAIA World Series in 1990 when the program was merely 10-years-old.

Second-year head coach Casey O’Connor, who both played and coached for the iconic Bob Bellizzi at Saint Rose, astutely put a framework in place a year ago when the Golden Knights were on the cusp of one of a half-dozen Northeast-10 Conference playoff berths until the final few days of the regular season. Saint Rose wound up tied for seventh with a 13-17 league mark, 16-29 overall.

That feat warrants a second look as Saint Rose was without its top-two starting pitchers for most of the year and was also dependent upon a starting lineup that usually featured four freshmen. Regardless, the Golden Knights defeated each league team at least once, with the exception of UMass Lowell, which wound up in second place, one game behind World Series bound Franklin Pierce.

Thus, there is reason for optimism as the 2008 campaign approaches. A healthy and stable pitching staff coupled with the continued maturation of some key young players legitimizes the goal of an NE-10 postseason run. The key again will be the team’s ability to swing the bats and thus afford the staff and defense some breathing room. Saint Rose hit a collective .253 and scored only 208 runs throughout 45 games in 2007, which placed the Golden Knights in the bottom half of both categories in the NE-10. Meanwhile, an inexperienced pitching staff posted a league worst 7.20 ERA. Naturally, all those figures will have to improve if Saint Rose is to play baseball in late spring.

Letterwinners Lost (12)
One dozen players are gone from last year’s roster. The most prominent names include shortstop Gary Miller, right-hander Chris Cahill, first baseman Ben Paniccia, and second baseman Brad Polcare. Miller, who is on O’Connor’s coaching staff this season, scored a team-leading 30 runs as a senior. Cahill was fifth in the NE-10 with five saves, Paniccia finished third on the club with a .271 batting average, and Polcare stole 15 bases and hit .264 while batting almost exclusively out of the second spot in the lineup.

Letterwinners Returning – Pitchers (12)
The starting staff is once again the club’s deepest and most talented asset. For the first time in a year, the pitching corps is healthy and thus the front end of the rotation should fall into the place nicely once conference action gets rolling in mid-March.

A big boost comes in the return of junior right-hander Jeremiah St. Louis (Tupper Lake, NY/Tupper Lake) who missed all of last year after suffering an injury in the preseason. St. Louis had a misleading 1-6 record two years ago, but the hard-throwing right-hander who garnered All-Conference accolades as a freshman in 2005, posted a 3.68 ERA with 50 strikeouts throughout a team-high 73.1 innings of work. Another junior right-hander, Brendon Malkowski (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) is expected to be ready once conference play gets underway after he fully recovers from surgery. Malkowski went 3-2 with a 4.32 ERA in 2007.

St. Louis and Malkowski will be joined in the rotation by two right-handers and a pair of southpaws. The quartet includes junior Nick DeMidio (Scotia, NY/CBA) and senior Kevin Zuchorski (Cobleskill, NY/Cobleskill-Richmondville), as well as junior left-hander Emilio LaPietra (Troy, NY/Troy) and sophomore lefty Jake Kozar (Norwalk, CT/Brien McMahon).

DeMidio fanned a team-high 47 batters throughout 51.2 innings of work, second most on the staff, while Zuchorski went 3-1 after making three starts and three relief appearances last spring. LaPietra wound up 3-4 with a team-best 3.84 ERA. He worked a team-high 58.2 innings throughout his first season in a Golden Knights uniform after transferring from Adelphi. Meanwhile, Kozar finished 2-3 throughout seven starts.

Junior right-hander Troy Conklin (Chatham, NY/Chatham) is expected to take on the closer’s role, after making 12 appearances out of the bullpen a year ago.

The rest of the veteran group is comprised of a pair of junior right-handers; Daniel O’Leary (Kingston, NY/Kingston) and Paul Partridge (Uniontown, PA/John Jay-NY) in addition to three sophomores in right-handers Nate Ward (Milton, VT/Milton) and Nick Dowen (Stony Point, NY/North Rockland) and southpaw Chris Brown (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Ludden).

Newcomers – Pitchers (6)
Four freshmen and two sophomores, a transfer and one who dressed exclusively for the JV squad in 2007, comprise the six newcomers to this year’s group. Sophomore right-hander Seth Weston (Liverpool, NY/Bishop Ludden), who is expected to have a set-up role, arrives via UMass Lowell where he made four appearances as a freshman. Justin Besaw (Saranac, NY/Saranac), also a sophomore right-hander, made three starts and worked a team-high 21.2 innings for the JV club last spring.

They are joined by four rookie right-handers in Doug Dulin (Ossining, NY/Ossining), Marcus Lounello (Albany, NY/Albany), Richard Egloff (Middle Island, NY/Longwood) and Nick Polsinelli (Schenectady, NY/Guilderland) who are all expected to have roles out of the bullpen.

Polsinelli, who was the Suburban Council Player of the Year last spring, is penciled in as the club’s starting second baseman, but is also slated to see time on the mound. Dulin was an All-County honoree at Ossining and may be groomed as a closer, Lounello was named the team’s Most Improved Player at Albany and Egloff was a four-year varsity starter for Longwood. The latter two are expected to be used in middle relief.

Letterwinners Returning – Position Players (11)
Listed among the veteran position players are a pair of seniors, four juniors and a quintet of sophomores.

Infielders Casey Deuel (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) and Victor Tolentino (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Miami Sunset-FL) comprise the senior class. Both are expected to bat in the bottom third of the order. Deuel, who appeared in 25 games in 2007, is expected to take over for Miller at short, while Tolentino will see time at both second and third after making a collective 22 starts in those two spots last season.

The junior group is made up of designated hitter Matt Frey (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa), infielders Chris Morrill (Glenmont, NY/Bethlehem) and Dominick Iaconis (New Fairfield, CT/Mount Saint Michael) and catcher Phil DeCandia (Beacon, NY/Beacon).

Frey is once again slated to bat third. He paced the Golden Knights with a .318 batting average and 25 RBI on the way to garnering All-Conference honors from the NE-10 last spring, his first in a Saint Rose uniform after transferring from Schenectady County CC. Morrill and Iaconis made seven and six starts respectively, while DeCandia batted .265 while starting 13 of JV squad’s 15 games.

As for the sophomore group, it is young only on paper as outfielders Ryan Price (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton) and Jake Perez (North East, PA/Cathedral Prep), and catchers Derek Marshall (Malone, PA/Franklin Academy) and John Cole (Spring Valley, NY/Spring Valley) all played major roles for last year’s team. Meanwhile, outfielder Robby Bellizzi (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem) saw limited time, but could be on the cusp of coming into his own this season.

Price garnered NE-10 All-Conference honors after batting .308 with 10 stolen bases out of the leadoff spot. Marshall made 40 starts; 20 behind the plate, 16 in left and four as the DH, and belted a team-leading four home runs. Cole started the remaining 25 contests at catcher and wound up hitting .264 with 18 RBI, while Perez batted .205 throughout 24 starts.

Newcomers – Position Players (5)
Among the newcomers in the batting lineup is junior outfielder Brett Weber (East Schodack, NY/Columbia), a transfer out of Hudson Valley CC, and four freshmen in outfielder Angel Nunez (Brooklyn, NY/George Washington), infielders Ryan Ross (Liverpool, NY/Bishop Ludden) and Grant Smith (Waterford, PA/Fort LeBoeuf) and catcher Sean Weber (East Schodack, NY/Columbia), Brett’s younger brother.

Nunez will compete for time in the outfield, Brett Weber is slotted to bat second behind Price, and Sean Weber will see playing time at a multitude of positions with Marshall and Cole already entrenched as the team’s two primary catchers. Smith will have a regular role in the infield and bat in the middle of the lineup as will Ross who is projected as the starting first baseman at this juncture.

Schedule
Saint Rose, which opened two weeks ago with five games in North Carolina, including two against #11 Tusculum (TN); will make its annual spring break trip to Florida during the first week of March. The Golden Knights will play 10 games throughout an eight-day span, including dates at Lynn University and Barry University who are both listed among Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s top-40 teams in the preseason.

The “Northern” portion of the schedule commences on Saturday, March 15 with a non-league doubleheader at Concordia down in Westchester County. NE-10 action gets rolling three days later when Saint Anselm visits Bleecker Stadium for a 3:30 pm start. Saint Rose travels to Rindge, NH to take on defending league champion Franklin Pierce on Friday, April 25. The two teams will close out the three-game season series the following Tuesday with a 3:30 pm doubleheader at Bleecker.

Overall, Saint Rose is scheduled to play 30 league games and an additional 24 non-conference contests.

Summation
From an overall perspective, this is still a young club with only three seniors listed on the roster. However, it is vastly more experienced than the one that took the field last season. Certainly, the initial pieces are in place for the Golden Knights to have realistic postseason aspirations. There is plenty of pitching depth with a frontline rotation of St. Louis, Malkowski, DeMidio and LaPietra more than capable of leaving its mark once the NE-10 schedule gets into full swing. If the offense is able to provide them with some adequate run support, Saint Rose could turn more than a few heads throughout the 2008 campaign.