The RPI baseball team concluded itsw season in May by winning the Liberty League Tournament with a 13-4 win over the St. Lawrence University Saints in the championship game and competing in the 2008 NCAA Division III tournament.
The Red Hawks finished with a school record of 36 wins on the year, winning games against the Farmingdale State College Rams, the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops, and the East Connecticut State University Warriors in the NCAA Tournament, but a pair of losses to the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons prevented the team from advancing out of the double-elimination New York Regional to the College World Series.
Associate Head Coach Steve Allard remarked: “This was a very successful year. … Offensively, we were off the charts this year ranking-wise with hitting and slugging-percentage and extra base hits. We had a very good core of seniors who led the way both offensively and pitching.”
In the May 11 win over the Saints in the championship game, the Red Hawks collected 17 hits and took advantage of four St. Lawrence errors in the field. Every Red Hawk in the starting batting order recorded a hit, and seven different players tallied RBIs in the game.
RPI jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with an RBI groundout by sophomore Patrick Reardon in the first and a two-run home run from senior Matt Muscatiello in the second. The Saints would score once in the third to bring the score to 3-1, but would get no closer, as the Red Hawks posted four runs in each of the fourth and sixth innings and added two more in the eighth to give the team a 13-4 victory and a first-place finish in the tournament. Reardon had four RBIs in the game, including three on a bases-loaded double in the fourth. Muscatiello finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, recording four hits in the contest. Sophomore Joe Dreimiller picked up the win, allowing just two runs on six hits through five innings of work.
Junior Sean Wilkes, who finished the tournament 9-14 with four runs and five RBIs, cited aggresiveness as key to the tournament win, stating that “we put a lot of pressure on the teams we were playing and when you do that consistently, you’re going to win games.” In addition to aggresiveness, sophomore Camden Mamigonian named cohesion and effort as important. “From the very first game we put forth all of the necessary effort to perform our best and our aggressive approach never waivered,” explained Mamigonian.
The Red Hawks had been seeded second in the tournament, having finished the regular season at 30-10, 18-6 in the Liberty League, after earning three victories in a four-game series against Skidmore College in the final weekend of regular-season play. To reach the championship game in the tournament, RPI had defeated St. Lawrence 6-1 and the University of Rochester Yellowjackets 5-3.
By winning the Liberty League Tournament, the Red Hawks secured a bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, where the team competed in the New York Regional as the third seed. RPI began with a pair of victories before falling to Cortland, with all three games having ties that needed to be broken in the eighth inning or later.
On May 14 against the Rams, Reardon hit an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to break a 6-6 tie for a 7-6 victory. Facing Ohio Wesleyan University the next day, the team battled back from a 6-1 deficit to knot the game at six before three runs scored on senior Ken Carroll’s home run in the eighth to break the tie for a 9-6 Red Hawk win. May 16, against Cortland, the Red Hawks and the Red Dragons were tied at five runs each through seven innings, but Cortland scored four runs in the eighth to hand RPI its first loss of the postseason and leave the team in the loser’s bracket.
There, on May 17, the Red Hawks took on Eastern Connecticut State in another very close game, with a tenth inning needed to break an 11-11 tie. The Red Hawks would score three times in the top of the tenth inning, and would only give up two runs to the Warriors in the bottom half of the inning to secure the 14-13 victory.
With the win, RPI faced Cortland again in yet another close game. The Red Hawks trailed by just one run, 2-1, most of the game, but the Red Dragons scored four runs in the ninth to extend the lead to 6-1. Cortland won by a final 6-2 margin, advancing to the College World Series.
The appearance in the NCAA tournament was the team’s second in the past three years. In 2005, the Red Hawks also competed in the New York Regional, defeating the Centenary College Cyclones before falling to Ithaca College and St. Lawrence.
The team’s 6-2 record in the postseason left the team at 36-12 on the season, good for a .750 winning percentage. On the season, senior Dan Valentine and Carroll led the team in batting average at .431 and .427, respectively. Mamigonian was the team leader in home runs with seven and in RBIs with 57.
The Red Hawks received a number of individual awards and honors at the season’s end. Senior Joe Zongol was named Liberty League Pitcher of the Year. Zongol finished the season with a 9-2 record and an ERA of just 1.99, both team-bests. He allowed just one home run while recording 82 strikeouts on the year.
Mamigonian was one of just nine players to receive an American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings NCAA Division III Gold Glove award. He had a fielding percentage of .980 for the year.
Additionally, three Red Hawks made All-American teams. Valentine was named to the ABCA All-America Second Team, while Zongol and Carroll were tabbed for the D3Baseball.com All-America Second Team.
The 2008 Liberty League First Team has also been announced, with seven Red Hawks making the list: Mamigonian, junior Andrew Novick, Valentine, Wilkes, Carroll, Reardon, and Zongol. Valentine, Mamigonian, and Zongol were named to the ECAC Division III Baseball All-Star Team as well.
As for next season? RPI will look to make another appearance in the NCAA tournament, advance to the College World Series, and compete for a national title. “We proved this past year that we have the talent and dedication to compete with the best teams in the country, and we must continue with that attitude and take our team to the next level,” said Mamigonian.
“Our goal is to get a national championship for RPI, for baseball, and we can do it,” stated Allard.
