Feb. 27, 2004
EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - For head coach Joe Kinney and the Lafayette baseball program, the goal of winning a Patriot League championship has remained a constant since his arrival on College Hill. In 2004, Kinney is banking on his 11 seniors, his first recruiting class at Lafayette, to reach that goal.
"We have 11 seniors back all of whom are key contributors. This is the first time since I've been here that I have had a senior class of more than four players," Kinney said. "I feel that their experience is what is going to give us the opportunity for success this season." The senior class features five returning starters among the position players and six pitchers, four potential starters and two relievers.
Offense should not be a problem for the Leopards. Lafayette finished second in the conference in hitting in 2003, managing a .285 team average. Three of the Patriot League's top six returning hitters will be wearing Lafayette uniforms in the persons of Jeff Rodgers, Adam Rosenberg and Adam Bucci. For the Leopards in 2003, five players managed batting averages over .300, all of whom return to the Lafayette lineup this season.
"Offensively, we're probably a better team than we were last season," Kinney said. "In addition to our upperclassmen, we have some young players who gained significant experience at the plate last season."
OUTFIELD
Two senior position players have entrenched themselves into starting spots in the outfield, a group that features two All-Patriot League selections. Senior Adam Rosenberg will hold down the rightfield spot for the fourth straight season. Rosenberg, who has already started 124 games in rightfield, is a career .350 hitter who has done nothing but be a consistent contributor offensively and defensively. He hit .359 and drove in 28 runs from the second spot in the batting order last season on his way to All-Patriot League First Team honors.
There will be a new but familiar face in centerfield as Jason Boyd will make the move from third base. Moving positions is nothing new for Boyd who handled the switch from second base to third base in 2003. Boyd began to hone his skills in the outfield in spot action as a junior. He hit .311 from the three hole while finishing second in the conference in RBIs. The All-Patriot League Second Team honoree led the team in slugging (.545), stolen bases (16) and doubles (11). Boyd has put his versatility on display the past two summers, competing in NCAA-sanctioned summer leagues, including 2003 when he was named a Coastal Plains League all-star. Junior Rob Fioretti, who held down the centerfield spot as a sophomore, will make the move to leftfield to accommodate Boyd. Fioretti was the Leopards' lead-off hitter in 2003 and the lefty hit .262. Freshman Brian Astry, who came in after a high school career as a centerfielder, looks to compete with sophomore Rob Kulish to be the first outfielder off the bench. Kulish could also spend some time at DH. Freshman James Conrad will also compete for playing time in the outfield.
"With Rosenberg, Boyd and Fioretti in the outfield, we have as experienced a starting lineup as any in the Patriot League," Kinney said.
INFIELD
The Leopards' middle infield will be an experienced one with two seniors set to occupy shortstop and second base. Jeff Rodgers, who led the team and finished second in the Patriot League in hitting with a .371 average, returns to second base. Rodgers has started in 76 of the 77 games he has played in the last two seasons, spending time both at second base and shortstop.
Senior Eric Vacca and junior Ted Kramer will battle for the starting role at shortstop. Vacca started 28 of 29 games at short last season while Kramer, who was used frequently as a pinch hitter and pinch runner, started nine games and played in 30 contests. "Potentially, we have two seniors starting up the middle who will solidify the infield," Kinney said.
Sophomore Tripp Williams will join freshman Kevin Leasure in competing for time in the middle infield.
Sophomore Ian Law likely will take over the starting job at third base. Law played in 15 games, starting eight before being hit by a pitch in practice and fracturing a bone in his hand. Law, who is a fundamentally sound player, hit .281 as a freshman. Freshman Frank Cortazar, a Miami Herald All-County player in high school, will back up Law and brings another left-handed bat to the lineup.
On the other corner, it will be a platoon situation with the graduation of four-year starter Matt Tambellini. Junior Adam Bucci, who was third on the team in hitting primarily from the designated hitter spot, will get the early season nod. When senior starting catcher Craig Alexander is not behind the plate, he will spend most of his time at first base and Bucci will move to DH. Also vying for time at first is freshman Nick Benvenuto who came in as a catcher. Benvenuto is a power hitter who started out his Lafayette career in the fall with a home run in his first at bat.
Behind the plate, it will be Alexander and sophomore Matt Skellan. Alexander has already started 107 games over three seasons at Lafayette and is a career .309 hitter with power. Skellan proved himself an able backup as a freshman, hitting .304 while playing in 24 games and starting 14. Benvenuto and fellow freshman David Drechsel will also bolster the catching battery.
PITCHING STAFF
The Lafayette pitching staff is an experienced group. Senior Marcus Ward has the most time on the mound of any of the returning starters. He started nine games as a junior and has 29 starts in his career. The right-handed Ward, an All-Patriot League Second Team selection as a sophomore, finished 2003 with a 4-3 record and a 4.66 ERA.
Senior Tom Soldan is also expected to fill a spot in the rotation. He emerged late in his junior year, starting the last five of his eight appearances. The crafty lefthander ended with a 2-0 record and a 4.08 ERA in 28.2 innings.
The other two spots on the weekend rotation and the slot as the mid-week starter have yet to be determined. Essentially, four players are competing for those three spots. Seniors Paul Fischetti and Brandon Ripley will battle with underclassmen Matt Revelle and Brian Cope to fill the voids left by 2003 graduates Joe Saporetti and James Duer. Fischetti is a right-hander who appeared in 11 games in 2003 with a 1-3 record. He won his only start of the season with a 10-strikeout complete game against Binghamton. Ripley spent his sophomore season as a weekday starter and his junior campaign as a reliever. Revelle and Cope need to prove themselves in order to get an opportunity to start. The sophomore Revelle was the Baltimore Sun Player of the Year coming out of high school and Cope is a Lehigh Valley native whose Parkland High School squad advanced to the Pennsylvania state quarterfinals.
Also challenging for time on the mound is sophomore Tom Phelan. Phelan missed the majority of the 2003 regular season and the entire fall season with an ACL injury, but is healthy coming into 2004.
The Lafayette relieving corps will be headed by seniors Hank Fichtner and Don Smith and junior Drew Moyer. Fichtner led the team in appearances (16) and ERA (3.60) as a junior and Smith was second with 12 appearances over 19.2 innings. Moyer is the lone lefty among the upperclassmen. He made 10 appearances with a 4.50 ERA as a sophomore.
Freshmen southpaws Matt Kamine, John Fugett and Ted Gjeldum are also expected to strengthen the Leopard relief staff.
"If our younger pitchers develop to the point where we have the confidence to use them at any spot, our opportunities to realize our goals greatly increase," Kinney said.
SCHEDULE
Lafayette's 2004 slate features a West Coast trip, a new Patriot League weekend format and the program's first-ever participation in the Liberty Bell Classic in Philadelphia. The Leopards will open their season with a weekend trip to Virginia Military Institute on Feb. 28-29. The home opener in the new Class of 1978 Stadium is scheduled for March 3 versus East Stroudsburg, one of 19 home games in 2004.
For the first time in the Kinney era, the team will take its annual spring break training trip to the West Coast. The Leopards will spend the week of March 13-20 in California, playing San Francisco, San Francisco State, Cal State Hayward and Pacific.
Lafayette will open Patriot League play on March 27 in a four-game series at Holy Cross. That first conference weekend will mark the debut for the new conference format of one seven-inning and one nine-inning game on Saturday and Sunday, as opposed to the two seven-inning games per day format used in previous seasons.
On April 20, the Leopards will begin play in the Liberty Bell Tournament. The opening round game of the single-elimination tournament will be played at Ashburn Field in Philadelphia and the semifinals and finals are scheduled for April 27 in the Philadelphia Phillies' new stadium, Citizen's Bank Park.
Lafayette's non-conference slate also includes home and home series with Fairleigh Dickinson and New York Tech and single games with Rutgers, Temple, Long Island, Hofstra, Manhattan, Wagner, Monmouth and St. Peter's.
