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Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
BASEBALL OPENS 2008 SEASON FRIDAY WITH FRESH SLATE
Ranked No. 6 nationally, Warriors look to extend success under Holowaty
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Bill Holowaty is approaching the 2008 baseball season in the same fashion in which he has approached each of the previous 39 in his head coaching career.
With cautious optimism.
It is an approach that has produced four NCAA Division III national titles and 14 regional championships and which has netted Holowaty 1,217 victories – a total which has made him the winningest coach of any sport at any level in New England collegiate history.
In 39 seasons, however, Holowaty has taken nothing for granted, and left nothing to chance. In his way of thinking, 39 straight winning seasons do not necessarily guarantee a 40th; four previous national championships do not guarantee a fifth.; fourteen regional championships do not add up to a 15th; six Little East Conference tournament championships over the last ten years do not mean that simply rolling the balls out will produce a seventh title this spring; and 23 seasons of 30 or more wins – an achievement unrivaled in the history of New England baseball – does not automatically set the stage for No. 24 this spring.
Only 18 coaches in the history of collegiate baseball at any level have won more games than Holowaty, who points out that “you have to have luck and the right mentality to win the conference and regionals as often as we have.” After failing to win the regional tournament in its first six years in the NCAA (1976-1981), Eastern has captured a dozen titles over the last 26 seasons. The ultimate tribute to Holowaty’s ability for unrivaled consistency lies in the fact that Eastern has qualified for the championship round of the New England Regional Tournament in each of its last 23 tournament appearances. Since 1981, there has not been one two-and-through. No quick exits. No cameo appearances. Not one thanks for comin’.
“’Come ready to play in May’ is our motto,” Holowaty contends. “The key thing for us this year, is to have fresh players and healthy bodies going into May. Somehow, we need to do that. Hopefully, we can move players around and keep them healthy. We have some big questions to answer this year.”
To Holowaty’s way of thinking, finding the answers to most of those questions in past years doesn’t ensure that the Warriors will pass this year’s final exam.
Sixteen letterwinners return from last year’s 38-12 team which won its fifth regional championship in six years after becoming the first team in the 11-year history of the Little East Conference to go undefeated in the regular season. After losing both of their games in the national tournament last year for only the second time in 14 appearances, the Warriors are ranked sixth in the ABCA/Division III pre-season national poll. To the surprise of no one in the annual pre-season coaches’ poll, they are the unanimous favorite to win their tenth conference championship in 12 years.
Returning this year are two of last year’s three All-America selections, as well as the Big Three pitching trio of senior righty Joe Esposito (East Haven), junior lefty Shawn Gilblair (Windham), and junior righty Jimmy Jagodzinski (Greenwich). As a designated hitter and pitcher last year, Gilblair was 11-2 with a 2.26 ERA and batted .396 and was named first-team All-America and national Player-of-the-Year. Esposito was 4-3 with a 3.35 ERA and Jagodzinski 7-0 with a 3.22 ERA.
Esposito is expected to draw the starting assignment Friday when the Warriors face 2007 national champion Kean University (1-0) on the campus of Rutgers University at 2 p.m. In its home-opener last year, Eastern scored two runs in the first inning but dropped a 5-3 decision to Kean in the first meeting between the programs in 15 years. They did not meet in last year's nationals. The Cougars opened their season Wednesday with a 6-5 win over Stevens Tech at Dobbelaar Field on the SIT campus.
Six starting position players return in Gilblair, third-team All-America shortstop Melvin Castillo (Danbury), senior second baseman Zack Thomas (East Haddam), senior outfielder Ismael Bolorin (Manchester), senior third baseman Trey Bongiovanni (Meriden), and junior first baseman Tristan Hobbes (Utica, NY). In his first season, Castillo batted .355 and led the team in home runs (14), RBI (58) and total bases (136). Bolorin (.333) ranked third nationally last year with a program-record 12 triples, while Hobbes (.331) was a first-team All-New England all-star in his first season in a fulltime role.
Behind the top three pitchers are junior lefty Mike Tingley (Rockville), untested sophomore righty Matt Fontaine (Cranston, RI), junior righty James Kukucka (Vernon), freshman righty Jim Schult (Wappingers Falls, NY), and first-semester sophomore Chris Wojick (Uncasville), a University of Maine transfer who has all four years of eligibility remaining.
In addition to his closing role out of the bullpen, Wojick may take over at catcher for All-New England catcher Matt Cooney, who signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox last summer. Bolorin may move from right field to center and will be flanked by senior leftfielder Jon Dalton (Standish, ME), and Schult in right. Another University of Maine transfer, freshman Andrew Dewing (Swampscott, MA), should also see time at first base and outfield.
Cooney, who started 48 games behind the plate last year, was one of the team’s three key losses, along with first-team All-America centerfielder and top hitter Randy Re (.404) and right-handed closer Jason LaVorgna (4-1-5, 1.14 ERA). A four-year starter, Re was also named an All-America Gold Glove recipient after fielding flawlessly on 108 chances. LaVorgna was drafted by the New York Mets last summer after leading the staff in ERA as a junior last spring.
“We have a lot of players who can play different positions, so we are trying to develop that part of our game,” says Holowaty “The key for our team this year is our ability to develop (depth). We must develop a pitching staff, more than one infielder, more than one catcher, and a solid outfield.”
Junior Lenny Meldon (Brookfield) could open the season in left field, due to a pre-season back injury to Dalton. Junior Andrew Magliola (East Haven) is the team’s only experienced catcher and will see considerable action behind the plate. Others expected to see significant time are infielder/outfielders John Parke (Middlefield), a sophomore, and freshman Pat Smith (Milford, PA), sophomore transfer infielder Travis Bass (West Hartford), sophomore third baseman Mike Palo (Brookfield), junior outfielder Andrew Smiley (North Kingstown, RI), freshman outfielder Andrew Dyer (Topsfield, MA), and sophomore outfielder/first baseman Cesar Gutierrez (New Haven). As a freshman last year, Bass was a third-team All-New England selection at shortstop at Castleton State College.
A two-time first-team All-America, Gilblair needs one pitching win to become the 11th 20-game winner in program history. In his two-year career, he is 19-3 with 164 strikeouts and 22 walks and a 1.97 ERA. Gilblair started and won the team’s conference-tournament opener last year, and started and won the opening and clinching wins in the New England regional. The conference Rookie-of-the-Year in 2005, Esposito showed flashes of that form last year following a sub-par, injury-marred sophomore season. Esposito pitched eight strong innings when Eastern downed Keene State, 6-1, in the winners’ bracket of the regional tournament. Jagodzinski (10-2 in his career) won one game in last year’s regional and gave up no earned runs in seven innings in a 5-4 loss to Emory University in the second round of the national tournament.
“I haven’t formulated what we are going to be like, because I haven’t seen us play any games yet,” Holowaty contends. “ I think we can be an exciting team. We have good speed: I think we can put pressure on our opponents. I think this is a skilled team, but we need to be more mature. It depends on how the seniors lead, and if they step up. I think that we’ve got some competitive kids – I think that they want to win, but the question is ‘do they know how to win’?
“We have to keep the game simple, and play the game simple. If we do that, we can be good,” submits Holowaty “I’m optimistic.”
Cautiously optimistic.
