LANCASTER, Pa. – The Ursinus College baseball team was picked sixth in the Centennial Conference preseason poll.
Defending champion Swarthmore led the way with a clean sweep of the first-place votes from the league's coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own teams. The Garnet accrued 91 points to top the projections, with the other first-place vote and runner-up status going to Johns Hopkins (72 points). Franklin & Marshall (62) was third, followed by Haverford (54), Muhlenberg (47), Washington College and Ursinus (40), Dickinson (26), Gettysburg (17), and McDaniel (11).
The Bears finished 10-22-1 overall and 5-12-1 in conference play a year ago, but return four all-conference performers and the program's first D3baseball.com all-region selection in junior Alex Mumme. The slugger made history as a sophomore, tying the school record with eight home runs and delivering 13 doubles, 32 RBI, and a .355 batting average.
Senior infielder Carter Usowski has been an all-conference honoree each of the last two seasons. He hit .333 with four home runs and a team-best 34 RBI in 2018, and already ranks fifth in program history with 28 doubles and ninth with 74 RBI.
Junior Dom Fiorentino will look to consolidate a breakout campaign in which he compiled a .349 average and 28 RBI, tying for the team lead and ranking fourth in the CC with 13 doubles on the way to an All-CC laurel. Fiorentino registered three outfield assists and finished the season on an 11-for-17 tear in the final four games.
Sophomore Nolan Graber became the team's ace immediately, going 4-3 with team bests in innings (43.1), strikeouts (30), and ERA (2.91) en route to becoming the first CC rookie of the year in school history. Graber's 1.71 ERA in conference games was good for fourth in the CC and included a pair of complete games and a two-hitter at Gettysburg.
Junior infielder Mike Stanziale was terrific last season, hitting .300 with six doubles, a pair of home runs, and 26 RBI. Sophomores Eric Gross (.294, 8 RBI) and Jerry Scavone (.247, 15 RBI) each saw plenty of action as rookies, and classmate Tom Jacobs (.260, 9 RBI) threw out 11 would-be base stealers from his catcher spot.
Ursinus will hope for more consistency from a pitching staff that compiled a 7.74 ERA a year ago. Senior David Drea owns eight career wins and put together a 3.86 ERA as a sophomore, and senior Matt Bull tied for second on the team with 21 strikeouts in 15 games (5 starts). Senior Mark LeDuc and sophomores R.J. Grace and Casey Fitzsimmons all worked double-digit innings last season.
The Bears' staff will get a big boost from sophomore Will Peiffer, a talented left-hander, and sophomore right-hander Nick DeFeo in addition to a number of incoming freshmen.
Ursinus opens the 2019 season with a rare pre-spring break home game, taking on Delaware Valley on March 3 and going to TCNJ two days later before playing 10 games in Florida.