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Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007
WARRIORS RANKED SIXTH IN PRE-SEASON NATIONAL POLL
In 2008, Warriors will chase record fifth NCAA Division III national championship
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Baseball is ranked sixth nationally in the 2008 Collegiate Baseball/NCAA Division III National Pre-Season Baseball Poll, released Wednesday.
The Warriors return six starting position players and four key pitchers from last year’s 38-12 team which won its fifth regional championship in six years, its ninth regular-season conference title in 11 years and sixth LEC post-season crown. Eastern has won four national championships – most recently in 2002 – under 40th-year head coach Bill Holowaty (1,217-451-5/73.0 per cent). No team has won more titles in the 32-year history of the championship.
The College of Wooster is the No. 1 ranked team in the pre-season poll, followed by Cortland State College and Kean University. Wooster lost in regional play last year, while Cortland won the New York Regional and Kean captured its first national championship.
GILBLAIR NAMED SECOND-TEAM PRE-SEASON ALL-AMERICA BY D3baseball.com
Eastern’s 16 returning letterwinners are led by junior left-handed pitcher/designated hitter Shawn Gilblair (Windham/Windham HS), sophomore shortstop Melvin Castillo (Danbury/Danbury HS), junior first baseman Tristan Hobbes (Utica, NY/Notre Dame HS), senior outfielder Ismael Bolorin (Manchester/Manchester HS), senior right-handed pitcher Joe Esposito (East Haven/East Haven HS), and junior righty Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich/Greenwich HS).
Gilblair (11-2, 2.26 ERA/.396) shared last year’s honor as ABCA National Player-of-the-Year and repeated as a first-team All-America. He was also the ECAC and LEC Pitcher-of-the-Year and was an ECAC and LEC first-team all-star and LEC tournament MVP.
Castillo (.355/14 HRs, 58 RBI) joined Gilblair on the All-America team, earning third-team honors as a freshman and finished second nationally in home runs. He was a first-team All-New England Region, ECAC and LEC all-star and the conference’s Rookie-of-the-Year. Hobbes (.331) was a first-team selection to the region, ECAC and LEC all-star teams, while Bolorin’s (.333) program-record 12 triples ranked third nationally on a per game basis (0.25). Esposito was 4-3 with a 3.35 ERA and won both of his post-season starts with a 3.38 ERA. Jagodzinski (7-0, 3.22) also won both of his post-season starts with a 2.86 ERA.
Eastern is the winningest program in 11 years of Little East Conference baseball competition. The Warriors are 161-36 overall (.817) – 133-22 (.858) in the regular season and 28-14 (.667) in the post-season tournament. Last year’s team became the first to finish unbeaten in the conference regular season, winning all 14 of its games.
In 2008, the Warriors are scheduled to play nine games against eight teams which qualified for last year’s NCAA tournament, including 2007 New England Regional qualifiers Wheaton College, Keene State College and Western New England College. They are scheduled to open their 40-game regular season against defending national champion Kean University March 1 at Union, NJ.
