Baseball Tabbed Fourth In Preseason NEC Coaches Poll
Blue Devils open 2016 season at Navy on March 4.
The Central Connecticut baseball team was picked fourth in the annual Northeast Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll it was announced by the league office on Friday. Following the regular season, the top four teams will earn a spot in the Northeast Conference Championship tournament to be held at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, CT, on May 26-29.
The coaches picked Bryant as the league's preseason favorite, giving the Bulldogs four first-place votes.
Sacred Heart, which won the league's tournament title last season, collected three first-place votes and was picked second.
Wagner was slotted just ahead of the Blue Devils, while LIU Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson and Mount St. Mary's rounded out the poll.
The Blue Devils has a solid core of returnees to build around for the upcoming season. Central has four seniors in Connor Fitzsimons, Casey Brown, Corey Lerche and Matt Martinez. Fitzsimons is primarily a catcher and played in 42 games a season ago. He drove in 13 runs and batted .263. Over the summer he led the Keene Swamp Bats of the NECBL with seven doubles.
Brown is also coming off a strong summer having been named to the All-NECBL First Team after leading Vermont to the league title and going 4-1 with a 1.25 ERA. As a junior, he ranked second on CCSU in innings pitched (61.1) and strikeouts (39).
Martinez played in 34 games last season for Central, but enjoyed a standout summer earning Summer Collegiate All-America honors while playing in the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League.
Lerche appeared in 37 games for the Blue Devils in his first season in New Britain. He posted eight multi-hit games, including a 3-for-4 outing at Penn State.
Central also returns a Second Team All-Northeast Conference pitcher, Brett Susi. As a sophomore, Susi went 4-2 with two complete games and a 3.53 ERA. He also had a scoreless streak of 18.2 innings over five games.
Central opens its 2016 campaign with a three-game series at Navy on March 4-6. The Blue Devils are scheduled to play their first home game against local rival, Hartford, on March 9. CCSU begins Northeast Conference play on March 18-20, when it travels to Bryant for a four-game series.
