First Pitch of 2016 Season Slated for this Weekend

The Alfred State baseball team opens up their 2016 season Saturday when they travel to Harrisonburg, VA to play a three-game series with Eastern Mennonite. The series is the start of a 40-game campaign that hopes to end with a USCAA postseason berth.

The Pioneers roster features just one senior but has 16 players returning from last year's team that won eight of their final 13 games. The 2015 squad won four more games than in 2014 and will look to build on that.

Jason Cronin enters his fifth season at the helm with high hopes. "The program has matured over the past few years both on and off the field as we look to return Alfred State to some of the success they have experienced over the years as a NJCAA program. The core of our team has been together for a couple seasons and the experience of playing right away as freshmen and sophomores should pay dividends this spring.

"Our assistant coaches, Bill Swanson and Vince McDaniel have done a great job of helping the players prepare for both on and off field success. A USCAA bid is possible with the talent level within the program if the team is able to avoid some of the slow starts we have experienced over the past couple years."

Catcher Nicholas Padley (Sweet Home) is the lone senior on the roster and will join Jake Remington (Letchworth), Jose Martinez (Queens/Newtown), Cullen Franz (Cazenovia), and Brady Sass (Caldeonia Mumford) as team leaders.

• Padley will sit in the middle of the order and provide leadership to the pitching staff behind the plate. He hit .308  with 11 doubles, two homers, and 22 RBI in 2015 and has connected on four homers and collected 40 RBI in his two years (2013 & 2015) wearing the blue & gold.
• Remington will be near the top of the pitching rotation after tossing 55 innings last season and finished 4-3 with a 3.93 ERA. He struck out 37 and walked 18.
• Martinez, an right handed hitting outfielder, hit .275 with seven doubles and 15 RBI in his freshmen campaign last season.
• Franz, the team's centerfielder, will be near the top of the order again this season after hitting .296 last year with three doubles, six triples, and 24 RBI. For his career he has appeared in 73 games and has 51 RBI and 42 runs scored.
• Sass is 7-5 in 21 appearances on the mound during his two seasons at Alfred State. Last season he struck out 30 in 47.1 innings of work.

Shortstop Pedro Mora (Manhattan/AP Randolph), second basemen Robert Cardona (Harlem/All Hallows), pitcher Connor Odonoghue (Avon), pitcher/first basemen Rafael Perozo (Bronx/St. Raymond), and relief pitchers Austin Baker (Canisteo Greenwood), Kyle Kuzma (Waverly) all return and will also be counted on to be key contributors.

Adirondack CC transfer Thomas Shofi (Carmel) along with freshmen Danny Doran (Irondequoit), Nick Mahoney (Cleveland, OH) and Andy Pichardo (Corona/Academy of American Studies) will be counted on to contribure right away.

After their three game set vs. Eastern Mennonite the Pioneers continue the southern portion of their season at the Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, SC (March 12-18) before heading up north to take on opponents from the NEAC, AMCC, SUNYAC, and the Empire 8.