Manager Matt Senk’s Stony Brook baseball team will start the 2015 season where they left the 2014 regular season: right at the top. The Seawolves entered the 2014 America East Tournament as the top seed and regular season champions, finishing 15-2 before losing two games to Binghamton when only needing to win one in the final round.
Stony Brook received five of the seven first-place votes to total up 35 points in a poll of the league’s seven coaches in which you are not allowed to vote for your own team.
Maine finished in second with 28 points, followed by Binghamton with 25 and Hartford with 22 to round out the top four, with the Bearcats and Hawks garnering the other two first-place votes.
A team that lost the likes of Kevin Krause and Brandon McNitt to the draft, the Seawolves have a lot of optimism going into this year.
Stony Brook has been dominant in regular season play in the America East, winning three of the last four regular season titles, but only taking one of those conference tournaments. That was in 2012, when they made the magical run to the College World Series.
The Seawolves return six position players, including All-America East shortstop Cole Peragine, second-team outfielder Jack Parenty and freshman All-American Casey Baker.
The young pitching staff will be led by second-team honoree Tyler Honahan and America East Rookie of the Year Cameron Stone. The Seawolves sport five freshmen in their pitching arsenal and have no seniors.
The team as a whole is very young, with only two seniors on the squad and 14 freshman on a 31-man roster.
The Seawolves will open up their season on Friday, Feb. 13 with a three-game series at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, L.A.
They will start their America East play with a championship rematch, hosting the Binghamton Bearcats for a three-game set from March 14-15.