STANDISH, ME - The 2013 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Baseball All-Conference Teams have been announced and nine Saint Joseph's College players have received accolades.
Senior pitcher Tyler Laverriere (Biddeford, Maine) highlights the list as the righthander has garnered GNAC Pitcher of the Year as well as First Team All-GNAC honors. Senior pitcher Chad Rafferty (Keene, N.H.), senior first baseman Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.), junior outfielder Alex Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.) and sophomore catcher Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.) join Laverriere on the First Team.
Senior second baseman Brandon Chase (Naples, Maine) and junior pitcher Joe Gruntkosky (Peabody, Mass.) have earned Second Team honors while junior pitcher Nick Whittaker (Yarmouth, Maine) and sophomore utility man Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus) have received Third Team mention.
Laverriere is in the midst of his finest collegiate season and has emerged as one of the top pitchers in the region as a senior. The lanky righthander is currently 5-2 with a 1.05 ERA and a 52/12 K/BB ratio in 51.2 innings and opponents are hitting just .201 (37-184) off him this spring. The two-time GNAC All-Tournament honoree leads the conference in ERA with a mark that would rank as the lowest single-season number in team history if the 2013 campaign were to end today.
Laverriere is the third Saint Joseph's pitcher to earn GNAC top-hurler accolades, as he joins Rafferty - who claimed the honor last year - and former teammate Pat Moran '10 in the exclusive club.
Rafferty collects First Team All-GNAC honors for the second-consecutive season and has posted fine number despite drawing some of the Monks' toughest opponents this spring. The two-time GNAC Pitcher of the Week recipient is 6-2 with a 3.81 ERA and a 46/10 K/BB ratio in 52 innings and sports a .241 (48-199) opponent's batting average this spring. Rafferty ranks as the Monks' all-time wins leader with a 27-3 record over four seasons and currently ranks second in team history in career strikeouts (228), third in innings (226.2) and fifth in WHIP (1.19).
Pratt claims First Team mention for the second time in his career and All-Conference accolades for the third time overall. The four-year starter currently leads the GNAC in RBI (43) and ranks second in the conference in home runs (6) and slugging percentage (.581). Pratt is currently hitting .333 (43-129) with 28 runs and 12 doubles and also sports a solid .418 OBP through 39 games this spring. For his career, he owns a .324 (179-552) batting average with 105 runs, 51 doubles, 21 home runs and 144 RBI.
Lorenc is currently tied for the team-lead in hits (48) and ranks second on the club in batting average (.372, 48-129), home runs (5), RBI (31) and slugging percentage (.574). The First Team award is a first for Lorenc, who claimed Second Team honors as a freshman and Third Team accolades as a sophomore.
Coyne is a First Team All-GNAC recipient for the second-consecutive season and is currently hitting .326 (43-132) with 27 runs, 12 doubles, two home runs and 30 RBI. He is second on the team in runs and doubles and third on the squad in RBI this season.
Chase, a First Team honoree last spring, collects Second Team mention as a senior and ranks as the team-leader in batting (.378), doubles (13), triples (4) and OBP (.419) and is currently tied for the hits lead with 48 this season. The all-around contributor has scored 22 runs and driven home 22 and sports a .567 slugging percentage in 39 starts. Also an outstanding defender, Chase anchors the infield with a .947 fielding percentage with eight miscues in 152 chances.
Gruntkosky has received All-Conference honors for the first time and is currently 5-2 with a 2.76 ERA and a 51/7 K/BB ratio in 42.1 innings as a junior. The junior starter has yielded a .201 (32-159) opponent's batting average and ranks fourth in the conference in strikeouts. His current WHIP of 0.91 would rank as the best single-season mark in program history, if the season were to close today.
Whittaker rounds out the quartet of All-Conference pitchers for the Monks and has quietly put together one of the best seasons in recent SJC baseball history. As of April 30th, the tall righthander is 5-2 with a 1.60 ERA and a 50/15 K/BB ratio along with a spectacular .189 (30-159) opponent's batting average. A two-time GNAC Pitcher of the Week honoree this spring, Whittaker has allowed just four extra-base hits all season and is 14-4 with the best career ERA (1.96) in program history. The All-Conference nod is the first of his career.
Lops, the 2012 GNAC Rookie of the Year and GNAC Tournament Most Valuable Player, is hitting .337 (29-86) with 15 runs, six doubles, a home run and 14 RBI as a sophomore. Beleaguered with injuries this season, Lops has seen time behind the plate as well as third base, left field and designated hitter this spring.
The Monks claimed their fourth-consecutive GNAC Championship - and eighth conference title in the last nine years - with a thrilling walk-off victory in 10 innings over Suffolk University on Sunday afternoon. Currently 28-11 overall with a 13-3 record in GNAC play, Saint Joseph's awaits the NCAA Tournament announcement on Monday, May 12th. Under the watch of 21st-year Head Coach Will Sanborn '86, the Monks will be participating in national tourney play for the seventh time in the last eight years when the NCAA Regionals begin on May 15th.
Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 350-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
