Baseball teams in the Northeast always endure the wrath of Mother Nature and this year has been no different. All I can say is thank God for Field Turf! The combination of warmer temperatures and some enthusiastic shoveling allowed us to get some of the early season kinks out before we open up this Friday in North Carolina. It’s raining today but we are still able to get outside… like I said, thank God for Field Turf.

Offensively, we return a solid core of hitters in Chris Kievit, Greg DeSantis, Gerard Tingos and Tyler Jones. In addition, we are expecting a breakout year from sophomores Derek Stupski and Drew Walsh. Defensively ,we will be solid up the middle with Tyler Jones/Chris Kievit catching, Greg DeSantis at short, Gerard Tingos at second and Sam Sciamarelli patrolling center field. Newcomers Tito Marrero, Albert Faz and Matt Valle will all be depended upon to make contributions both offensively and defensively. We will play better defense as a team and be more of a station-to-station type club this year offensively. Overall, thoug, I believe we have better balance as a ballclub.

On the mound we have fifth-year Senior Kenny Cedel as our Friday starter and juco transfer/returnee Adam Sauter as one of our Saturday starters anchoring the staff. We need those two guys to go out and pitch to their abilities for us to compete in the Northeast Conference. Seniors Matt Owens and redshirt juniors Jesse Johnson and Paul Lopez will all be looked to for important outs in middle relief/starter roles. Newcomers Justin Topa, Matthew McCormick, Emerson Morillo, Chris Franzese and Brad Reimer will all compete for quality innings as freshmen. Evan Zerff, Luke Hammond, Joe Murphy, Danny Iglesias and returning closer Gerard Tingos (five saves in 2009) will carry the workload from the sixth inning on for us. I believe our depth as a staff gives us an opportunity to be in games late. If we are up a run, down a run or tied late in games, we feel really good about our chances to compete for the win. We have the ability to match up with teams and give them some different looks and overall as a staff and at this point we are healthy.

The first few weekend series (Canisius and Virginia Tech), our Spring Trip (Army, Dartmouth and North Dakota State) and weekday games versus Manhattan and St. John’s will offer our staff an opportunity to see some really good offensive and overall clubs before the end of March. Tough early season out-of-conference scheduling is important to try and prepare your team for a conference season. We’re looking forward to the challenge and having a great 2010 season.

If you want to follow the Blackbirds this upcoming season please visit our Web site at: www.liuathletics.com/baseball or you can also follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/liubaseball.

-Coach Noto