PREVIEW: Baseball Opens Pursuit of Sixth NE10 Title with First-Round Tilt at SNHU
Northeast-10 Championship Central
RINDGE, N.H. (May 6, 2018) – For the 19th straight season, the Franklin Pierce University baseball team will make an appearance in the Northeast-10 Conference Championship. The Ravens, who are the Northeast Division's fourth and final seed, will open pursuit of their Conference-record sixth NE10 title on Tuesday morning, when they travel to top-seeded Southern New Hampshire for the first round. The start time has been moved up due to anticipated wet weather Tuesday afternoon, and first pitch is now set for 11 a.m. at Penmen Field in Manchester, N.H.
Though a four seed this year, Franklin Pierce (23-21, 16-12 NE10, 12-9 NE Div.) has been the cream of the crop in the NE10 Championship over nearly the last two decades. The Ravens are set to establish a new Conference record with their 19th appearance in the NE10 Championship, and have done so in 19 consecutive years. Franklin Pierce has made 10 appearances in the championship round of the tournament, which is more than any other school in NE10 history. The Ravens' five titles (2015, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005) are the most among active NE10 schools and tie former league members Springfield and Massachusetts Lowell for the most in Conference annals. Franklin Pierce's last trip to the title round came in 2017, when they were defeated by New Haven.
Meanwhile, SNHU (36-11, 22-6 NE10, 17-4 NE Div.) will be making its seventh appearance in the NE10 Championship, which have come in seven consecutive seasons. The Penmen have won their first-round contest in each of the previous three seasons, and have not suffered a first-round defeat since 2015. SNHU is a two-time finalist at the NE10 Championship and has won the title in each of those two appearances in the final round (2016, 2014).
Scouting the Ravens
Franklin Pierce will hope to get hot at the right time as the team heads into the postseason. Uncharacteristically, the Ravens needed a win in the final series of the regular season to lock up their NE10 Championship berth. Franklin Pierce dropped the first game against Assumption, but bounced back to win the next two, including a 10-0 Senior Day rout, to keep its string of postseason appearances alive.
Franklin Pierce has not been ranked yet this season in the NCAA East Region rankings. With an overall record of 23-21, the Ravens' only path into the NCAA Championship field is to win the NE10 Championship and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA East Regional.
On the field, senior left fielder Brad Roberto (San Diego, Calif.) has been the clear leader at the plate for Franklin Pierce all season. In his final go-around at the collegiate level, the Golden State native has put together a .358/.473/.539 slash line over 165 at-bats (59-for-165), which have largely been split between the leadoff spot and the three-hole. Roberto has tallied 10 doubles, four triples and four home runs, scored 39 times and drive in 30 runs. He has drawn 38 walks against just 21 strikeouts. The Ravens have also gotten a .299/.382/431 slash line over 167 at-bats (50-for-167) out of junior first baseman Jonel Ozuna (New York, N.Y.), who has contributed 14 doubles, a triple and a pair of home runs while scoring 23 runs and driving in 37.
Scouting the Penmen
On the other side of the ledger, though it was already squarely in the NE10 Championship field, SNHU finished the regular season in style, sweeping away Merrimack at home to lock down the Northeast Division title. The Penmen enter the postseason winners of four in a row and eight of their last nine.
The Penmen were ranked second in last week's NCAA East Region rankings, which means they are safely in the field for the NCAA Championship, regardless of the outcome of this week's conference tournaments. SNHU will be playing for its seed, and potentially the right to host regional play next week.
SNHU is led at the plate by junior second baseman Joshua Goldstein, who has put together a .301/.435/.386 slash line over 153 at-bats (46-for-153) with seven doubles and a pair of home runs. He has also piled up 39 runs scored and stolen 15 bases in 19 attempts. Sophomore Sam Henrie has added .310/.368/.412 over 187 at-bats (58-for-187), with 12 doubles, two triples and a home run, and has driven in a team-best 35 runs.
On the Mound
Franklin Pierce is expected to give the ball to freshman right-hander Danny Gracia (Wilmington, Mass.) on Tuesday, for his first career postseason start.
On the season, Gracia has made 16 appearances, including four starts, and logged 42 innings. He has allowed 24 runs (19 earned) on 37 hits, walked 13 and struck out 38 (8.14 per nine innings) to put together a 4.07 ERA and a 1-4 record with three saves.
Gracia started at home against SNHU on April 16 and put together a quality start, though the Ravens would eventually fall in 11 innings, 3-1. He threw 86 pitches (54 strikes) over the first six frames, allowed just one unearned run on three hits, walked two and struck out six.
SNHU is expected to counter with one of the NE10's most veteran arms, in graduate student right-hander Jake Walkinshaw. In contrast to Gracia, Walkinshaw is no stranger to the postseason, as Tuesday will mark the 14th postseason appearance of his career, though most of them came when he was a member of the Penmen bullpen. It will mark just his third career postseason start. It will be Walkinshaw's first career NE10 Championship start, as both of his previous postseason starts came in last season's NCAA Championship.
On the season, Walkinshaw has made 12 appearances, including 11 starts, to total 79.2 innings. He has surrendered 15 runs (all earned) on 54 hits, walked 22 and struck out 88 (9.94 per nine innings) on the way to a 1.69 ERA and a 7-0 record.
Walkinshaw started all three of SNHU's games against Franklin Pierce this season, and earned the win in two out of the three. At Penmen Field on April 2, he went seven innings, allowed two runs on five hits, walked two and struck out five to pick up a win in a 5-2 SNHU victory. His longest outing of the three came on April 16 at Franklin Pierce, when he allowed one run on seven hits over nine innings, walked three and struck out nine, but did not factor in the decision in a 3-1, 11-inning Penmen win. Finally, on April 30 at SNHU, he fired seven scoreless innings, allowed three hits, walked one and struck out 10 to notch the win in an 11-0 SNHU victory.
Earlier this Season
As mentioned above, SNHU took all three regular-season meetings between the two teams, with Walkinshaw on the mound in all three. On April 2, back-to-back two outs hits from junior designated hitter Dylan Faircloth and junior third baseman Jake Coro keyed a three-run seventh to lift the Penmen to a 5-2 victory at home. On April 16 at Franklin Pierce, the Ravens rallied to tie in the ninth on a pinch-hit RBI single by freshman third baseman Jethro Hurt (New York, N.Y.), but SNHU plated a pair of runs in the top of the 11th to pull out the 3-1 victory. On April 30, back at SNHU, the Penmen hammered out 15 hits on the way to an 11-0 win to close out the season series.
Previously in the Postseason
The Ravens and the Penmen have met seven times previously in the postseason, though just one of those meetings has come in the NE10 Championship.
In the 2017 edition of the tournament, the two met in what was effectively a semifinal contest, with Franklin Pierce advancing to the title round with a 6-4 victory. Three wild pitches in the top of the seventh helped the Ravens break a 3-3 tie and take the lead for good, while Miles Sheehan struck out three over two high-tension innings to nail down the save.
The other six postseason meetings between the two have come in the NCAA Championship East Regional. The two have split the six NCAA meetings, with three wins apiece.
Headed to the Game?
If you plan on making the trip to Manchester on Tuesday, directions to Southern New Hampshire and maps of the Manchester campus can be found here: https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/maps-and-directions
Ticket prices are set as follows:
Adults - $6
Children/Seniors - $4
Students (with valid ID from NE10 institutions) - $1
Per Conference policy, no additional complimentary admissions will be issued.
How to Follow Along
If you prefer to follow the action from home, from work or from elsewhere, both live video and live stats will be available.
Live stats: https://www.fpuravens.com/sports/bsb/2018-19/boxscores/20190507_7jyn.xml
Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/snhu/
Up Next
The winner of Tuesday's first-round contest will advance to the weekend, double-elimination portion of the NE10 Championship, currently scheduled for Thursday through Saturday. The top advancing seed from the Southwest Division will host the weekend portion of the tournament. Should rain necessitate the postponement of any of Tuesday's scheduled first-round games, the weekend portion of the Championship will be held Friday through Sunday.
Southwest Division first-round games are as follows: top seed Adelphi will host fourth-seeded Southern Connecticut State at 3 p.m. and second-seeded Pace will host third-seeded Le Moyne, at 6 p.m. The Franklin Pierce/SNHU winner will open the weekend against the Le Moyne/Pace winner.
The Northeast Division's other first-round contest features third-seeded Merrimack visiting second seed Bentley at 2 p.m.
For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (https://www.fpuravens.com). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce baseball apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (https://www.fpuravens.com/store).