HC crusades into tourney
Holy Cross baseball coach Greg DiCenzo routinely matches his team up against the toughest nonleague opponents he can fit on the schedule.
The NCAA Division 1 selection committee’s reward for the Patriot League champion? DiCenzo’s Crusaders have been paired with the top-ranked team in the country.
Holy Cross (23-27) drew the No. 4 seed in the Corvallis (Ore.) Regional and will take on host and No. 1 overall seed Oregon State (49-4) on Friday night. The Pac-12 champion Beavers are the top seed in the tournament for the third time in five years.
In the regional opener, No. 3 seed Yale (32-16), the Ivy League champion, will meet up with No. 2 Nebraska (35-20). Regional play involves a double-elimination format.
Oregon State has won 16 straight games, the longest active streak in the nation. Holy Cross qualified for the NCAAs by winning its first Patriot title, and its last national tournament appearance was in 1978.
“I’m really excited to see our guys compete,” DiCenzo said. “Our guys are excited about this opportunity and we’ll be there, we’ll show up and we will certainly compete. That has kind of been our backbone all year and our bread and butter. That’s who we are as a program. We are a program that relishes competing against the best teams in the country at a high level no matter what the situation is.”
The first road trip of the season for Holy Cross, which finished below .500 but went 12-8 in league play, was a series at Auburn. A California journey followed, with stops at Riverside, Northbridge and USC.
Although his Crusaders went 2-9 against those teams, DiCenzo found value in the competition.
“I always think it is good early in the year to play against teams that have major league prospects up and down the lineup,” DiCenzo said. “Those kinds of games prepare you for those intense, high-level games late in the year.”
The likely opening game starter for Holy Cross is Brendan King, a senior right-hander from Brookline who started a teamhigh 15 games. Joe Cravero (Hanover, N.H.) and Phil Reese fill out the rotation.
“He is a competitor, a tough kid with a fastball, slider and changeup,” DiCenzo said of King. “He throws with a couple of different arm angles and a couple of different slots, and he’s a kid who for Falmouth in the Cape (Cod) League pitched against the highest level of competition,”
George Capen is the top option out of the Crusaders bullpen and picked up the win in the Patriot League championship game against Bucknell.
“He has tremendous action on his breaking ball and when he is locating pitches he is tough to hit,” DiCenzo said. “He competes and he keeps hitters off balance so I’m going to like seeing him compete against that level of competition.”
In addition to Holy Cross and Yale, New England will be represented in the tournament by Central Connecticut State (36-20), the Northeast Conference champion. The Blue Devils are the No. 4 seed for the Fort Worth Regional and play No. 1 TCU (42-16) on Friday, with No. 2 Virginia (42-14) and No. 3 Dallas Baptist (40-19) also at the Texas site.