SHU Summer Baseball Update: Part 1

Date: June 20, 2017

By: Tim Best

The season may be over, but for some of the Seton Hall baseball players, they'll be getting plenty of work in this summer. Multiple SHU baseball players opt to take part in summer collegiate leagues around the country. Here's how some of them are doing so far.

In the NECBL, the Upper Valley Nighthawks are riding an eight game winning streak, which has them in first place in their division by a game and a half. They have been led by shortstop Al Molina had three hits in five at-bats in a doubleheader sweep of the Danbury Westerners on Saturday and got his first RBI of the summer on Sunday in a 10-7 win over the New Bedford Bay Sox. Elsewhere, the Ocean State Waves have a 6-1 record entering Monday. In a 5-4 win in extra innings over the Plymouth Pilgrims on Thursday, Mike Alescio hit a solo home run and outfielder Liam McArthur hit two doubles. Andrew Politi started the game and gave up one run in five innings.

Outfielder Ryan Ramiz returned to the Mystic Schooners over the weekend and is hitting .333. Finally, freshman pitcher Ricky Devito is looking to build off his stellar rookie campaign for the Vermont Mountaineers. Coming off a rough outing against Upper Valley earlier in the week, he bounced back with three scoreless frames in a 5-1 win on Father’s Day over Danbury.

In the ACBL, incoming freshman third baseman Casey Dana (younger brother of Cullen) is off to a red-hot start for the North Jersey Eagles, hitting .600 with a home run and five RBIs in just four games played. Outfielder Tyler Shedler-McAvoy is also doing well out of the gates, leading the team with six RBIs. On the mound, Corey Sawyer has already pitched nine innings and yielded just one earned run, striking out 15 hitters in the process. Rob Dadona is currently hitting .277 with a home run and four RBIs in 11 games with the Staten Island Tide. Dadona had a huge night on June 11, when he went 3 for 5 with a home run.

In a shortened game on June 6, Noah Thompson earned the win in an 11-4 victory for the Gastonia Grizzlies of the Coastal Plains League, giving up one unearned run over four innings. Just three days before, Billy Layne Jr. was the winning pitcher in an 8-5 win over the Savannah Bananas, pitching 6.1 innings and allowing two runs, both of which were unearned.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned as summer baseball season continues to heat up!

Tim Best can be reached by e-mail at timothy.best@student.shu.edu.

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