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Friday, May 18, 2007
BASEBALL'S GILBLAIR NEW ENGLAND PLAYER-OF-THE-YEAR
Sophomore utility player among five Warriors named to NEIBA Division III first team
MEDFORD, Mass. – Sophomore designated hitter/pitcher Shawn Gilblair (Windham, CT) has been selected Division III Player-of-the-Year by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) and has been joined as a first-team all-star selection by four teammates.
A first-team ABCA Division III All-America at the pitcher position as a freshman last year, Gilblair was named at the utility position on the NEIBA first team. He was joined on the first team by four teammates: senior centerfielder Randy Re (Danbury, CT), junior right-handed pitcher Jason LaVorgna (North Haven, CT), sophomore first baseman Tristan Hobbes (Utica, NY) and freshman shortstop Melvin Castillo (Danbury, CT). Senior catcher Matt Cooney (Arlington, MA) represented Eastern as a third-team choice.
Gilblair repeated as a first-team choice while Re gained a spot on the All-New England team for the second straight season. He was named to the third team as a junior. The team’s five first-team picks were earlier named to the All-Little East Conference first team, with Cooney earning second-team All-LEC accolades. Gilblair was additionally named the conference’s Pitcher-of-the-Year, first-team All-LEC at pitcher and all-conference second team at designated hitter. Castillo was the conference’s Rookie-of-the-Year.
Through the first two games of the NCAA Division III New England Regional Tournament for the 36-10 Warriors, Gilblair was batting .397 with six home runs and 47 RBI as a designated hitter/first baseman and team’s cleanup hitter. On the mound, the lefty is 10-1 with a 1.82 ERA, 69 strikeouts and nine walks. In a two-year career, Gilblair has 111 hits with eight home runs and 81 RBI and a .346 batting average. As a pitcher he is 18-2 with a 1.74 ERA, 157 strikeouts and 20 walks. Gilblair was named MVP of last weekend’s conference tournament for the second straight year, pitching a complete game win and driving in the tournament-winning run with a ninth-inning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning of the championship game.
A three-year starter in center field, Re is the only player to start every game for Eastern and leads all regulars with a .410 batting average. The No. 3 hitter in the lineup, Re is ranked either first or second on the team in most every offensive category and has also fielded perfectly on 94 chances. He leads the team with 73 hits and 17 stolen bases and is second on the club with 118 total bases and 51 runs. He leads the team with 23 multiple-hit games, including nine games of at least three hits. In his hometown April 29 against Western Connecticut, Re had five hits and hit for the cycle. He had a team-longest 13-game hitting streak this season.
Re has 222 hits in his four-year career, seventh all-time. He is tied for tenth all-time with 22 home runs and is eighth in total bases (348), tied for sixth in stolen bases (63) and is tied for seventh with a .988 fielding percentage (four errors on 335 chances).
A second-year transfer from the Division I level, LaVorgna has appeared in a staff-high 23 games out of the bullpen. He is 4-0 with four saves and a 0.91 ERA in 29 2/3 innings, 37 strikeouts and eight walks. In 49 2/3 innings over 41 career games in his two-year career, LaVorgna is 5-1 with six saves and a 1.45 ERA. At UMass Amherst in 2005, LaVorgna was 0-2 with a save and a 5.62 ERA in ten games (one start).
In his first season as a fulltime starter, the left-handed hitting Hobbes is batting.344 and shares second on the team with 47 RBI and has a .989 fielding percentage with a team-leading 334 putouts. Last year, Hobbes never had more than one RBI in a game. This year, he leads the squad with 13 multiple-RBI games and has also had 16 games this year with two hits or more.
The team’s No. 5 hitter in the order, Castillo leads the Warriors in numerous offensive categories, among them runs (52), home runs (12), doubles (16), total bases (127), slugging (.734), and assists (96). His team-leading home run total equals the seventh-highest total in a season in program history and is just one shy of Al LeBoeuf’s 1980 freshman season record. Castillo’s RBI total is also the second-most in a season by a freshman, three shy of LeBoeuf’s season record. Castillo has already become only the ninth player in program history – the first freshman -- with as many as 50 runs and 50 RBI in one season.
A three-year starter at catcher, Cooney has started all but two games behind the plate this year and is batting over .300 for the second straight season (.310). He has one home run and 37 RBI and leads the team with 373 defensive chances and is second to Hobbes with 318 putouts and is third witih a` .987 fielding percentage. At the conference tournament, Cooney became the first catcher in program history to record as many as 1,000 putouts in a career. He also ranks first all-time among Eastern catchers in chances. Cooney currently has 1,004 putouts, 1,153 chances and a .989 fielding percentage. He ranks fifth all-time in chances and putouts and seventh in fielding percentage.
Ranked second in New England and 11th nationally, Eastern was the only program represented with more than one first-team selection to the All-New England selection. First-team selections are eligible for the All-America team, which is announced Friday on the first day of the NCAA Division III national tournament. The five first-team selections equal the most-ever for Eastern.
