Bentley, DeFelice Launch 47th Season with 3-Game Series at #1 Tampa, Beginning Saturday
WALTHAM, Mass. – When Bob DeFelice made his debut as the only head baseball coach in Bentley University (then Bentley College) history back in 1969, Richard Nixon was in his first year in the White House, Joe Namath had recently led the New York Jets to the Super Bowl championship, Bill Russell was leading the Celtics to their 11th World Championship in 13 years and the price of a stamp was just six cents.
Forty-six years and nearly 1600 games later, DeFelice is still at the helm of the Falcons. His 47th year at Bentley will get underway Saturday evening when the Falcons begin a three-game series at the University of Tampa, the preseason number one in Division II and owner of six national championships.
The first pitch for Saturday's game is slated for 6 pm. The two teams will also meet Sunday at 1 pm and Monday at 3 pm with all three contests available for a fee at www.tampaspartans.tv.
DeFelice's 47th Bentley team, ninth in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason Division II East Region rankings, is a veteran squad, one that includes 18 returnees from last year's 22-18 team. Five of the nine starting position players are back, as is every pitcher who started a game for the 2014 Falcons.
Two of the veterans were third-team All-Northeast-10 Conference selections in 2014, right fielder Tom Nagy (Fairfield, Conn./Ludlowe HS) and lefty pitcher Ryan O'Connor (Newburyport/Newburyport HS), and another, center fielder Mike Muir (Bridgewater/Xaverian Brothers HS), was one of only three outfielders nationwide named to the 2014 Rawlings Division II Gold Glove team by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Nagy, in two Bentley seasons, has slugged 17 doubles, nine triples and a dozen homers while driving in 61 runs. Last spring, he tied the school record for triples (6) and elevated his batting average nearly 60 points to .283.
O'Connor's 2014 season featured three shutouts, including Bentley's first no-hitter in 42 years, a feat he achieved April 19 against Saint Anselm. He finished the season with a 5-5 record and an impressive 2.57 ERA.
Muir, who had the highest batting average (.286) among this year's returnees, tracked down 124 balls without an error last spring and also recorded six assists.
Other returning pitchers for the Falcons include veteran righties Scott Lueders (Mansfield/ Newton South HS) and Connor Root (Nashua, N.H./Nashua HS North), a duo who combined for ten wins last spring. Lueders, a grad student, was 4-2 with a 3.41 ERA while Root, a senior, won six of eight decisions and pitched to a 4.01 ERA. Senior lefty David Long (Brookfield, Conn./Brookfield HS) was also a regular in DeFelice's starting rotation, with a 3-4 record and a 4.04 ERA.
The Falcons also have experience out of the bullpen with junior Will Alden (Westford/Westford Academy) and sophomores Ray Rowell (Wellfleet/Nauset Reg. HS) and Nick Taber (Eastham/Nauset Reg. HS) combining for 34 relief appearances in 2014. Alden and Taber both put up sub-three ERAs and Rowell had four saves.
Junior Bryan Rocha (Rehoboth/Dighton-Rehoboth HS) has handled the bulk of the catching for Bentley over the last two years, sophomore Burton Deady (Andover/Andover HS) started every game at second, and classmate Justin Ashworth (Orange, Conn./Amity Reg. HS) was the first baseman in 36 of the last 37 games.
DeFelice bolstered his roster with the addition of two transfers, outfielder Kevin Foley (Southbury, Conn./Pomperaug HS) from Wheaton College and junior infielder Zachary Littman (Abington/ Abington HS) from UMass. The left-handed hitting Foley, a grad student, was a three-year starter for the Lyons, hitting .304 for the Lyons.
Tampa, whose most recent Division II national championship came in 2013, is coming off a sensational 54-4 season, one that included 32 wins in 33 home games. The Spartans have two first-team preseason All-Americas, pitcher David Heintz (10-0, 2.08 ERA) and outfielder Stephen Dezzi (.369).
This weekend's trip to Florida is the first of three the Falcons are scheduled to make to the Sunshine State this year. They'll be at Rollins for three in two weeks, and back in Winter Park Mar. 8-14 for games against St. Thomas Aquinas and Bridgeport.