Baseball |
East Stroudsburg, Pa. -East Stroudsburg University's 2001 baseball team returns seven of its top eight hitters, led by the record-breaking double play combination of shortstop Brett Reynolds and second baseman Tadgh LaBar.
Now Coach Roger Barren is seeking to upgrade his team's pitching staff which he claims too often failed to keep the Warriors in games last season. "This team should have strong hitting and solid defense at every position," said Barren. "Now the key is how well our pitchers perform. "Last year, we hit well enough (.322 team batting average) to get the job done, but we didn't pitch well enough (5.00 earned run average) and that was the reason we were just a little over .500 (27-26)," the coach added.
The Warriors are loaded with talented position players, especially up the middle with Reynolds and LaBar, both of whom made the All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and the All-NCAA North Atlantic Region first teams. Reynolds led the PSAC Eastern Division in hitting with a .421 average with school-record 71 hits. LaBar established a school record for runs scored with 59. He batted .365. There also is experience at the other up-the-middle positions with sophomore Joe Sobeski at catcher and senior Matt Harmic in centerfield. Sobeski enjoyed an outstanding freshman season, batting .379 with 50 hits in 132 attempts. Harmic was hampered by a pulled hamstring muscle midway through the season, but still batted .329. Also back are two other .300 hitters in starting third baseman Ryan Hatfield, who batted .321, and outfielder Anthony Piazza, who had a .322 batting average. Another returning starter, Steve Harris is being moved from first base to leftfield. Sophomore Ryan Conrad will be a backup at shortstop and third base. There are two top starting pitchers back in juniors Mike Zimorowicz, who posted a 6-5 record including a no-hitter over Bloomsburg, and Gordy Kocher, who was 3-3. Also returning is righthander Craig Whitten, who was 3-2 in limited action. Barren has added not only talent, but also experience to the squad with seven transfer students. Bryan Yagel, an all-Conference player the last two years for Penn State-Wilkes Barre, will take over at first base. PJ Worsnik, who batted .322 over two years for Lackawanna Junior College, will get the sh$ htfield assignment. Blake Martin, who attended Moravian, will be a backup outfielder. Four transfers, righthanders Jason Ryan from Schenectady Community College, Matt DelGiudice from Lafayette and Ryan Amey, who attended Kutz-town last year, and lefty Len Makarczyk from Luze$ ollege have been added to the pitching staff. Ryan is the hurler to watch as he displayed an 86-88 mph fast ball and an effective change up during fall practice. Another newcomer, freshman Danny Supey was the top pitcher in the Wyoming Valley Conference last year and will be in the regular pitching rotation. Other freshmen include outfielder Nick Farkas, pitcher Troy Hayes and catcher Eric Lenz.