MERION STATION, Pa. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team will host St. Bonaventure in a three-game set at Smithson Field this week to close out the 2016 regular season. First pitch in the series opener is set for 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Due to an unfavorable forecast for Saturday, the teams will play a doubleheader on Friday, beginning at noon. Between games, the Hawks will honor their graduating class in the annual Senior Day ceremony.
The Hawks have locked up a spot in the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship, which opens next Wednesday at Fordham, but could still be seeded anywhere from first to sixth in the final bracket. The Bonnies, meanwhile, currently sit in ninth place in the league; the top seven teams will head to the Bronx to play for the A-10 title.
Saint Joseph's (28-19 overall, 14-7 Atlantic 10) enters the weekend on a five-game winning streak, having won the series finale at La Salle and a midweek game against Monmouth by identical 14-2 scores before sweeping out Fordham at Smithson Field last weekend.
Sophomore catcher Deon Stafford, Jr., is the reigning Atlantic 10 and Big 5 Baseball Player of the Week after hitting .643 and posting a mind-boggling 2.107 OPS in four games. Stafford reached base in 10 consecutive plate appearances and tied the school record – a mark he had set seven weeks earlier – with three home runs in Friday's game against Fordham.
Stafford currently leads the Atlantic 10 in batting average (.395), home runs (17), runs scored (50), slugging percentage (.724), and on-base percentage (.489), while his 73 hits and 32 walks rank second and third in the conference, respectively. He is tied for sixth in Division I in home runs, while his slugging mark is eighth-best in the nation.
John Brue's 15 home runs rank him second on the squad and in the conference, while Cal Jadacki has hit eight home runs, good for third on the team and tied for sixth in the league. The trio of Stafford, Brue, and Jadacki's 40 combined home runs are more than every other team in the conference has hit other than Saint Louis – and the trio has matched the Billikens' total of 40.
As a team, the Hawks rank 16th in all of Division I in home runs per game, hitting 1.11 longballs per contest, a number surely helped by the 10 home runs hit by SJU – including three each by Stafford and Brue, and a pair by Jadacki – in the three-game series against the Rams last weekend.
Jadacki ranks second in the league in runs batted in with 47, while Brue and Stafford's 43 apiece are tied for fourth. Jadacki leads the Atlantic 10 in RBI in conference games with 30, while Stafford and Brue are second and third with 24 and 21, respectively.
Marc Giacalone is the Atlantic 10 leader in walks, having drawn 35 free passes this season, tied for the seventh-most in school history. Stafford, meanwhile, leads the league in walks in conference play, drawing 14 bases on balls in A-10 games, including four in Saturday's game against Fordham.
Giacalone is also the team leader in stolen bases with seven, while Brue, Taylor Boyd – whose .294 average is second-best on the squad – and Peter Sitaras have swiped six bags apiece.
Charlie Concannon was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week on Monday, and he leads all Hawk newcomers in every offensive category, having played in 44 games and started 40.
Junior Pat Vanderslice earned weekly accolades as well, as he was tabbed the Big 5 Baseball Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday after tossing eight shutout innings over two outings last week. After a perfect inning of relief on Wednesday, he went seven innings and allowed just five hits in the series finale against Fordham. Vanderslice improved his record to 6-2 and dropped his earned run average to 3.49.
Freshmen Tim Brennan and Lucas Rollins have been strong at the front end of the rotation in their first collegiate seasons. Brennan ranks among the league leaders with a 7-1 record and a 2.54 ERA, while Rollins has struck out 65 batters to just nine walks, good for a 7.22 strikeout-to-walk ratio that ranks atop the Atlantic 10 and 12th nationally.
St. Bonaventure (24-21-1 overall, 9-12 Atlantic 10) dropped both ends of a doubleheader against Saint Louis last Friday after winning the first game of the series a day earlier.
The Bonnies are led offensively by Tyler Walter's .331 batting average. He also ranks second on the team in hits and slugging percentage and tied for second in runs batted in. Walter's .401 OBP is also tops among SBU regulars.
Ted Dilts has hit four home runs on the season and has posted a .458 slugging mark to pace the Bonnies, while Thad Johnson has added a pair of longballs while leading the team with 26 RBI.
Cole Peterson remains one of the top stolen-base threats in the Atlantic 10 with a team-high 17, tied for third in the league.
The strength of the St. Bonaventure squad is in its pitching staff. The Bonnies have used just nine pitchers this season, but the team has posted an ERA of 2.84 that leads the league by nearly a full run and ranks seventh in all of Division I. The Hawks and Bonnies lead the Atlantic 10 in fewest walks per nine innings – SJU is sixth in the country, while SBU is 13th – and the Bonnies have two of the seven lowest qualifying ERAs in the league in Brandon Schlimm and Aaron Phillips.
Connor Grey, meanwhile, ranks second in the conference in strikeouts with 80, while Schlimm is third in the league with 1.01 walks/hits per inning pitched. The pair both rank among the conference leaders in innings pitched as well.
Johnson serves as the team's closer, leading the way with five saves, while Reid Van Woert has notched three.
Live video streaming for Thursday and Friday's games will be available on the Atlantic 10 Network, while live stats and streaming audio are available free of charge on SJUHawks.com.
Probable Starters
Thursday, 3:00 p.m.: LHP Lucas Rollins (4-4, 3.36 ERA) vs. RHP Brandon Schlimm (7-4, 1.97 ERA)
Friday, Noon: RHP Tim Brennan (7-1, 2.54 ERA) vs. RHP Connor Grey (2-6, 3.08 ERA)
Friday, Game 2: TBD vs. RHP Aaron Phillips (2-3, 2.91 ERA)
