Conference baseball races to be decided
The Trinity College baseball team will not only be making its 12th NCAA Division III appearance but will be hosting a regional after receiving an at-large bid.
The question is whether the Bantams will be the state’s only baseball team to take part in the NCAA tournament this year.
Although this is the final week of the regular season, the Central Connecticut, Fairfield, Hartford, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart and UConn teams still don’t know who stands in their way when the conference tournaments get underway.
Hartford is 10-10 in the America East with three games remaining against Albany. The Hawks are currently in fifth place in the standings but only a game behind both Bing- hamton and Albany and ⁄2
1 game behind Maine. UMass Lowell could also move up the standings but it won’t be easy with a final series against conference leading Stony Brook.
Quinnipiac and Fairfield have already secured spots in the MAAC tournament. Quinnipiac is currently in third place with a 14-6 record in MAAC play, only a game behind first-place Manhattan and Canisius. Manhattan will come to Hamden for a three-game series this weekend, meaning that series, as well as the Canisius-Niagara threegame set, will determine the conference’s regularseason champion. Fairfield finished MAAC play with a
15-9 record so with Quinnipiac or Manhattan squaring off, the Stags won’t be able to earn the No. 1 seed.
Central Connecticut has already clinched a spot in the NEC tournament and will be the No. 2 seed. Sacred Heart is currently in third place but LIU Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson and Wagner are within two games with just three conference games remaining. The Pioneers end the regular season with games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday against conference leading Bryant, so stay tuned.
UConn is the only state school with a chance to earn an at-large bid into the Division I tournament but the Huskies are 6-8 in their last 14 games heading into Tuesday’s game at Rhode Island. UConn ends the regular season with three games at Tulane, the second-place team in the American Athletic Conference standings. Depending on what happens in the Houston-UCF series, Tulane might need to sweep to secure the No. 2 seed. Winning the Tulane series would not only help UConn’s AAC seeding but strengthen the case for an at-large bid if the Huskies fail to win the conference tournament.
The AAC tournament will be played from May 21-26 at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, FL. The MAAC tourney is from May 22-25 at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in Staten Island, N.Y. The America East tournament also kicks off on May 22 in Vestal, N.Y. The NEC tournament is the only one in Connecticut as Dodd Stadium in Norwich will host the event from May 23-26.
OWLS FLYING HIGH ONCE AGAIN
Powered by Oghenefejiro Onakpoma’s victory in the triple jump, Milan Spisek’s championship effort part of a 1-3-4 finish in the pole vault and Nigel Green narrowly missing out on a sweep of the sprinting events, the Southern Connecticut State men’s track and field team won the New England championships for the second year in a row.
Green won the 100 meters in a time of 10.76 seconds, was second in the 200 in 21.38, anchored the second-place 4x100 relay team and was part of the third-place 4x400 squad as the Owls finished with 112 points to edge out Rhode Island for the title. The Owls’ performance was all the more impressive considering that the Division II program topped a field where the rest of the top five finishers were Division I teams.
Spisek, Jesse Nelson and Jack Brown all cleared 15-11
1⁄4 as the Owls scored 23 points in the pole vault. Onakpoma, who ranks among the top 10 in Division II in his speciality, won the triple jump on his first attempt. Terrell Patterson was second in the 1,500 meters and a member of the
4x800 relay team which finished third. Christopher Lebeau third in the 5,000.
New Haven’s Dante Gonzalez won the high jump, teammate Michael Kandolin third in the hammer, Sacred Heart’s Michael Kearns and Cameron Croce second in the shot put and hammer throw, Coast Guard’s Ben Zarlengo third in the discus, Hartford’s Victor Shapovalov third in the javelin.
In the women’s competition, New Haven’s Kristen Washington won the long jump and took second in the triple jump, SCSU’s Erin McKee was the hammer throw champion with New Haven’s Alanna Robinson placing third, Coast Guard’s Kaitlyn Mooney and Quinnipiac’s Emily Wolff were the top two finishers in the 5,000, Trinity’s Burabari Kabari and Conn College’s Koko Mensah finished 1-2 in the shot put, Coast Guard’s Leilani Salang won the discus, Trinity’s Devan Walsh took the javelin, Quinnipiac’s Marlo Wehrer (400 hurdles) and Kaleigh Roberts
(3000 steeplechase) finished second as did the
4x400 relay while the Bobcats’ 4x800 relay placed third, SCSU’s Briana Burt third in the 100 hurdles and part of the second-place
4x100 relay while Sacred Heart’s Jillian Kilmer and Quinnipiac’s Kalli’ana Botelho ended up second and third in the heptathlon.
DEELEY LEAVING UCONN
John Deeley, who has been a part of four men’s soccer national championship teams during coaching stints at Southern Connecticut and UConn, announced he will depart UConn to pursue other professional opportunities.
Deeley has helped the Huskies reach the NCAA Tournament 18 times in his tenure, a stretch that includes the Huskies earning a national ranking for at least one week in 18 of the
22 years he has coached. “It was my great privilege and pleasure to have been a member of the UConn coaching staff for the past 22 years, and to have been associated with such a great University,” Deeley said in a release. “I want to thank all the people that I’ve worked with, who are too numerous to mention, both within and outside the athletic department. I want to thank Ray Reid for the opportunity to work alongside him all these years and especially for his decades-long friendship. Lastly, to all the players who have come through the program, I wish to extend heartfelt thanks.”
Deeley helped the Huskies post a 12-6-2 overall record during the 2018 season, which marks the
21st winning season in the
22 years Deeley has been on staff.
Before starting at UConn, Deeley spent eight seasons with head coach Ray Reid at SCSU.
“John has been my right hand for 30 years,” Reid said. “So much of our success has come from his insight, dedication and expertise. I will miss him a great deal both professionally and personally.”
The Warriors swept through the NCAA Division III regional hosted by Tufts, holding the host school to one run in the final two games to advance in the tournament. Wesleyan’s men’s and women’s tennis teams advanced to the Division III quarterfinals. The women’s team will face MIT in the quarterfinals with the men’s team meeting Middlebury.
BY THE NUMBERS
2: Connecticut natives heading to NCAA Division II men’s golf championships. Cheshire’s Chris Simione helped Bentley finish second in East/Atlantic Regional while Southbury’s Michael VanDerLaan’s albatross on the 14th hole on the final day helped Florida Southern finish fourth in the South/Southeast regional.
3: Runs and hits for East Haven’s Allison Luzzi for Bridgeport softball team in NCAA regionals.
3: Number of Tewaaraton Award finalists coming to Rentschler Field for the two NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse. quarterfinals. Penn State’s Grant Ament, Loyola’s Pat Spencer and Yale’s record-breaking faceoff star TD Ierlan led their teams to wins over the weekend to advance to Sunday’s quarterfinals in East Hartford.
3: Wins by UConn women’s track team at American Athletic Conference championships as Kat Surin won the
400, Susan Aneno took the
800 and they were on winning 4x400 relay team. On the men’s side, Madison’s Ian Bergere was the pole vault champion.
4: Points in the first half by Abby Manning to lead Wesleyan women’s lacrosse team to 11-6 win over Mary Washington
4: Hits for Sacred Heart’s Amy Petrovich in NEC softball tournament including a pair of doubles.
5: Bridgeport players with home runs in ECC baseball tournament. Joey Grillo and Patrick Palmer had two each as the Purple Knights advanced to final before falling to LIU Post.
6: Hits for Milford’s Jim Palmer and Branford’s Tyler Criscuolo for the Southern Connecticut baseball team in
The two New Haven area stars combined to win three Big Ten titles. Holmes, a freshman, won the 400 meters in a facility record time of
52.17. Rivers won the 800 in
2:04.71 and the 1,500 in
4:17.69.
GET OUT AND GO
Baseball, Manhattan at Quinnipiac, Thursday-Saturday: The Bobcats have a chance to secure the No. 1 seed in the MAAC tournament playing three games against one of the two teams ahead of them in the standings.
Baseball, Bryant at Sacred Heart, Thursday-Saturday: Pioneers still have some work to do to secure a spot in the NEC tournament and have to face the top team in the conference to wrap up the regular season.
Men’s lacrosse, NCAA quarterfinals, Sunday: Top-ranked Penn State faces Loyola (MD) at noon followed by Yale and Penn meeting for the third time this season.