Red Storm Baseball Picked To Finish Fifth In New-Look BIG EAST
Senior Eddie Schultz named to preseason All-BIG EAST team.
Dec. 19, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The St. John's baseball team was picked to finish fifth in the BIG EAST's preseason coaches poll, as released by the conference office this afternoon. Notre Dame captured nine of 11 possible first-place votes and was chosen the favorite to win the league, while Pitt was chosen second and earned two first-place votes. Newcomers, South Florida and Louisville, were picked third and fourth, respectively, to round out the top five.
The Panthers swept individual preseason honors, with second baseman Jim Negrych being named the Player of the Year and right-hander Bill Muldowney the Pitcher of the Year. Eddie Schultz earned preseason All-BIG EAST honors after hitting .301 with four home runs and 26 RBI last season.
A total of 15 players (six pitchers, five infielders, three outfielders, one designated hitter, one catcher) earned spots on the Preseason All-BIG EAST Team. Ties in the voting created two additional pitcher spots and one additional infield spot.
The BIG EAST officially expanded from 10 to 12 baseball members on July 1, 2005. Each member participating in the Conference baseball league competes in a round-robin rotational, one-division format; each team plays a three-game series versus nine of the 11 opponents on a rotating basis.
The top eight teams at the end of the regular season, based on the league standings, will advance to the 2006 BIG EAST Championship, which will be a double-elimination format tournament held from May 24-28 at a location to be announced. The winner of the Championship will receive the conference's automatic bid to the 2006 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
St. John's will return five starting position players and six pitchers from last year's team, as it looks to defend its BIG EAST regular season championship. The Red Storm went 19-4 in league play a season ago, part of a school-record 41-win season. The team set school records with 118 doubles, 499 strikeouts and 19 saves and made the program's 29th NCAA Tournament appearance, in what was one of the most successful seasons in school history.
A veteran group that includes first baseman Chris Joachim, second baseman Sam DeLuca and outfielder Anthony Smith will look to make it back-to-back BIG EAST titles when conference play begins March 24-26 with a three-game set at Villanova.
St. John's will face a tough non-conference schedule, starting with a sweep through the state of Texas in mid-February. A season-opening three-game series at Texas Tech (Feb. 17-19) and games against Rice (Feb. 24), Texas State (Feb. 25) and Nebraska (Feb. 26) face the Red Storm prior to March 1st, before moving East for games against East Tennessee State, Charleston Southern and the College of Charleston.
St. John's opens its home schedule on March 14, with games against Albany (March 14) and Quinnipiac (March 18-19) and travels to Fairfield (March 21) and Temple (March 22), before its conference opener at Villanova.
2006 BIG EAST BASEBALL PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
Team (1st Place Votes), Pts.
1. Notre Dame (9), 117
2. Pittsburgh (2), 103
3. South Florida, 91
4. Louisville, 87
5. St. John's, 82
6. Rutgers, 76
7. Villanova (1), 51
8. West Virginia, 51
9. Connecticut, 48
10. Cincinnati, 42
11. Seton Hall, 26
12. Georgetown, 18
2006 PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jim Negrych, Jr., 2B, Pittsburgh
2006 PRESEASON PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Bill Muldowney, Jr., RHP, Pittsburgh
Preseason All-BIG EAST Team
P - Bill Muldowney, Pittsburgh
P - Jeff Samardzija, Notre Dame
P - Rob Brant, Pittsburgh
P - Tim Norton, Connecticut
P - Casey Hudspeth, USF
P - Dan MacDonald, Seton Hall
IF - Jim Negrych, Pittsburgh*
IF - Todd Frazier, Rutgers
IF - Brett Lilley, Notre Dame
IF - Doug Nelms, West Virginia
IF - Ryan Craft, Georgetown
C - Ryan Carpenter, West Virginia
OF - Stan Posluzny, West Virginia
OF - Matt Bransfield, Notre Dame
OF - Jeff Grose, Rutgers
DH - Ed Schultz, St. John's
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