Molloy's offense ready to roar

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It’s uncertain at this point in the season if the Molloy College baseball team will be able to reach its goal of winning an East Coast Conference championship. But one thing that does seem clear about the 2015 Lions is that they will feature one of the ECC’s most dangerous offenses.

“We can run, we can hit for power, we can hit for average,” Molloy coach Joe Fucarino said. “I think we’re going to generate a lot of runs.”

The 5-7 Lions have scored eight or more runs five times already this season. In back-to-back wins last week over Caldwell and Adelphi the team put up a combined 27 runs.

Molloy’s lineup features 2014 ECC rookie of the year Kevin Podell, along with senior John Galanoudis and junior Michael Rahn. The three big bats makeup the heart of the team’s batting order, and have made things difficult for opposing pitchers in the early going. Junior Deilyn Guzman and sophomore Brian Murphy have also given the offense a boost with their speed on the base paths.

“Our offense is really exciting. And we have a pretty solid defense,” Fucarino said. “We just got to get our pitching right, and we’re looking pretty good right now.”

Pitching is definitely Molloy’s biggest question mark at this point. But, the Lions do have one of the conference’s top arms leading their starting rotation in junior Shea Spitzbarth. “We have one of the best pitchers in the region in Shea,” Fucarino said. “We have a legitimate No. 1 in him.”

Behind Spitzbarth in the rotation is returning starter Alex Brosnan and former reliever Bobby Kelly.

After navigating through a challenging early part of the season, which had the Lions traveling all over the country, and dealing with lots of weather postponements along the way, Molloy now prepares to begin conference play. And Fucarino does not expect things to get any easier for his team.

“The conference schedule is tough. You can’t take a breath,” he said. “It’s just a grind every weekend.”

High hopes for Lady Lions

The Molloy College softball team also has high expectations for this season, after putting up 30 wins in 2014. But the Lady Lions need some new faces to step up if they are to duplicate last year’s success.

Nicollete Sinagra, Dayna White and Milan Botte, who all hit over .370 last season, have moved on. Coach Susan Cassidy-Lyke acknowledges that the trio’s exit is a big loss, but still feels confident about her club’s chances this season.

“I think people are going to be not looking for us to do as well, having lost those three bats,” Cassidy-Lyke said. “But, I think we’re gonna surprise people. I see a consistency throughout our lineup.”

Molloy has started the season playing on the road in Arizona and Florida. Although the wins have not been there early on for the Lions, Cassidy-Lyke has been pleased with the performances of her younger players.

“We had a lot of contributions from our freshmen in (our early) games,” Cassidy-Lyke said. “Up the middle I started a freshman catcher, shortstop and centerfielder. So right up the middle they’re young, but they’re good.”

Catcher Alexandra Russo, shortstop Brianna Dalton and centerfielder Olivia Banulski have played in every game and have all made a positive impact early on in their freshman seasons.

The team has also gotten strong starts from some of its returning players, like first baseman Victoria Gunnels. This senior has driven home 13 runs so far.

Junior Tracey Balinskas currently leads the Lions with a .367 batting average. She is also splitting starting pitching duties this season with sophomore Chelsea Hawks. While Cassidy-Lyke is confident in Molloy’s offense, she says strong pitching will be crucial to her team’s success this year.

“The biggest key for us is that we’re gonna need to have our pitchers keep us in games,” she said.” We’re not looking for them to get lots of strikeouts, but we need them to keep the ball in the park, because we’ll make the plays (in the field).”