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Nighthawk Baseball Opens Season at 5-5
The Newbury College baseball team returns to campus after completing a 5-5 week at the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Fla. over Spring Break. The warm Florida weather woke up the Nighthawk bats, as they saw a dramatic spike in their offensive statistics from the last two years.
In the past two seasons, the Nighthawks finished at the bottom of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) in nearly all three major batting categories. Last season, they hit just .260 as a team down from .274 in 2009.
That all changed in 10 games this season. Newbury is hitting .300 as a team compared to their opponent’s .286 batting average. Led by outfielder Michael Dean (Wethersfield, Conn.) four players, who have appeared in at least eight games this season, maintain an average north of .300. That is two players more who finished last season with .300 plus batting average. (Catcher Patrick Curry (Hampstead, N.H.) and centerfielder Kyle Schiavone (Wethersfield, Conn.) hit .333 and .330 last season with a base of 90 at-bats.)
Against Finlandia, Dominican (Ill.), Monmouth, Eastern Nazarene and Nichols, Dean not only hit for power and average but also was getting on base. In addition posting a .500 batting average and .607 slugging percentage, Dean’s .517 on-base percentage helped the team OBP balloon to .390 – their highest over the last three seasons.
The Nighthawk outfield was red-hot at the plate during their week in Florida. The ball was rocketing off sophomore Matthew Clawson’s (Tolland, Conn.) bat, hittingfor both power and average while being a threat on the basepaths, swiping four of six bags. Freshman outfielder Michael Dwyer (Hamden, Conn.) finished the week hitting .421 with an on-base percentage of.450.
It is not just the offensive categories that have seen improvement in the first week of the season the pitching has progressed as well. In five appearances this season freshman Shawn Marcelle (Bristol, Vt.) leads the pitching staff with a 0.75 ERA and 10 strike-outs in 12 innings of work. He earned the victory in Newbury’s comeback victory in game two over Dominican while picking up his second win of the week against Eastern Nazarene on Friday March 11th.
Sophomore starter Christopher Ninteau (Lisbon, Conn.) has also been solid on the hill for the Nighthawks earning two victories against Finlandia and Eastern Nazarene. The second year pitcher went the distance against the Lions allowing three runs – one earned – on three hits. On Friday March 11th after two straight losses to Monmouth and Thiel, the previous two days, Ninteau got Newbury back on the winning tracking tossing seven innings of one run ball on four hits while fanning five.
Newbury finished out the week with two losses to a tough Nichols team before they returned to Boston Sunday afternoon. The Nighthawks look to continue their red-hot hitting and solid pitching when they face the Emerson College Lions for a double-header on Tuesday March 15th. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00pm at Maplewood Park (Malden Catholic) in Malden, Mass.
- Photos by Ric Teves
