STANDISH, ME – The Saint Joseph's College Baseball team will host UMass.-Dartmouth in a fall ball doubleheader on Saturday, September 22nd. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 PM and the teams will play a pair of nine-inning games.
The Monks will also be collecting non-perishable food donations during the event, with all items being donated to Catherine's Cupboard Food Pantry in Standish. Both teams will contribute to the worthy cause.
The day of games will mark the first time the Monks and Corsairs have faced off during the non-traditional fall season and the fifth-consecutive year in which St. Joe's has held the food drive. The Monks hosted Gordon College in each of the last four years.
Saint Joseph's is coming off what many would consider to be the best season in program history, as the Royal Blue went 39-7 (.848) overall with a 14-2 record in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) in 2012, breaking the SJC Athletics record for victories and finishing second in the nation - among all divisions - in winning percentage. Led by Head Coach Will Sanborn '86, now in his 21st year at the helm, the Monks captured a conference championship for the seventh time in the last eight seasons and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in seven years in 2012. Ranked in the top-20 nationally for the majority of the season, the Monks capped the year ranked 14th in a pair of NCAA DIII national polls and, with eight starting position players and most of the pitching staff returning, looks to be among the elite DIII programs in the country again this coming spring.
Senior pitcher Chad Rafferty (Keene, N.H.) headlines the group of returners after going 10-0 with a 1.71 ERA and 74 K's in 68.1 innings on the way to claiming GNAC, NCBWA New England, and D3Baseball.com New England Pitcher of the Year and ABCA/Rawlings as well as D3Baseball.com Third Team All-America accolades last spring. 2012 GNAC Rookie of the Year and Conference Tournament MVP Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) as well as All-GNAC honorees Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.), Brandon Chase (Naples, Maine), Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.) and Alex Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.) also return for Saint Joseph's.
UMass.-Dartmouth went 14-23 overall and 3-11 in Little East Conference games last spring under the watch of first-year Head Coach Bob Prince, who served as an assistant coach at St. Joe's during the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
