Baseball

Defending Champion Monks Picked to Finish Second in 2020 GNAC Preseason Poll

Defending Champion Monks Picked to Finish Second in 2020 GNAC Preseason Poll
Posted: Feb 22, 2020

WINTHROP, Mass. – Suffolk University has taken the top spot in the 2020 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Baseball Preseason Poll, as announced on Thursday by the league office. The Rams, who won four straight GNAC titles from 2015-18 before falling in last year's conference tournament, received six of the nine possible first-place votes for 76 points overall in the rank, which was voted upon by the league's head coaches.

Defending GNAC champion Saint Joseph's College of Maine, which last spring won its first conference title since winning five straight and six of seven from 2008-14, finished second in the preseason poll with 71 points and two first-place votes. Johnson & Wales University, which fell to SJC in last year's championship game, took the third spot with the remaining first-place tally and 67 points overall.

Championship Sunday last year between JWU and SJC was one for the ages, as the Wildcats forced the if-necessary game at Fraser Field in Lynn before the Monks fought back with a thrilling 11-inning, 8-7 walk off win for SJC's first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years.

Led by 28th-year Head Coach Will Sanborn '86, the Monks return three All-Conference players from the 2019 GNAC Championship squad, as First Team All-GNAC starting pitcher Matt Bergeron (Salem, N.H.), Second Team All-GNAC outfielder Hunter Richardson (Monmouth, Maine), and Third Team All-GNAC infielder Drew Healey (Rochester, N.H.) are back and figure to help lead the Royal Blue to a contending position in the conference.

Bergeron claimed First Team accolades after going 7-3 with a 2.53 ERA and 34 K's and only nine walks in 57 innings during his freshman season. Richardson enjoyed a breakout year, hitting .306 (41-134) with 42 runs, six doubles, four triples, four home runs, 27 RBI, and 14 steals as a first-year starter. Healey also posted a breakout campaign by hitting .341 (42-123) with 28 runs, seven doubles, 24 RBI and a stellar .461 OBP.

Senior outfielder Ben Gravel (Rochester, N.H.), sophomore third baseman Ronan Chisholm (North Chatham, Mass.), junior infielder Luke Johnson (East Hampton, Conn.), and junior outfielder Kevin Aylward (East Bridgewater, Mass.) also return and – along with a talented group of freshman position players – look to bolster the Monks' lineup this spring.

On the mound, Bergeron will lead a young but promising staff as fellow sophomores Johnathan Flynn (Holden, Mass.), Matt Poff (Pelham, N.H.) and Alex D'Angelo (Peabody, Mass.) all gained plenty of valuable experience in 2019. Seniors Luke Klenda (Yarmouth, Maine), Jonathan Rolfe (Plainville, Mass.), Troy Bogdahn (Hollis, Maine) and Weston Bergeron (Lyman, Maine) also figure to play prominent roles while junior Jonathan Marchia (Chicopee, Mass.) returns as the team's closer after notching six saves in 2019.

Suffolk, meanwhile, won four GNAC Championships in program history prior to former Rams righthander Anthony Del Prete taking over the program as head coach in 2015. Suffolk went on to win each of the next four GNAC titles since the takeover and earned the No. 1 seed in the 2019 GNAC Tournament, however the Rams lost a pair to SJC and JWU in the tourney last season to see its four-year NCAA berth run come to a close.

The 2020 spring campaign will mark the final GNAC encounter for Suffolk baseball, as the university moves to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) as a full member beginning with the 2020-21 academic year.

Following the top-three, Anna Maria College landed fourth in the preseason poll with 48 points, just ahead of fifth-place Lasell University with 46 points.

Anna Maria, after going 0-14 in league play back in 2017, has posted six-win campaigns against GNAC foes each of the last two seasons, while Lasell will turn the reigns over to first-year head coach and Lasers alum Billy Uberti in 2020.

Making up the remainder of the poll included Albertus Magnus College with 41 points, Colby-Sawyer College with 24 points, Norwich University with 22 points, and Rivier University with 10 points.

 

2020 GNAC Baseball Preseason Poll

1. Suffolk (6) - 76

2. Saint Joseph's Maine (2) - 71

3. Johnson & Wales (1) - 67

4. Anna Maria - 48

5. Lasell - 46

6. Albertus Magnus - 41

7. Colby-Sawyer - 24

8. Norwich - 22

9. Rivier - 10

 

THANKS IN LARGE PART TO GNAC SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE

 

#GOMONKS

 

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Founded in 1912 by the Sisters of Mercy in Portland, Maine, Saint Joseph’s College is Maine’s Catholic liberal arts college in the Mercy tradition. We are inclusive of all faiths, including no faith. The 474-acre campus, located on the shore of Sebago Lake in Standish, Maine offers more than 40 undergraduate programs and a Division III athletic program to a population of approximately 1,000 on-campus students. A pioneer of distance education since the 1970s, the College also provides online certificates and undergraduate and graduate degrees for thousands more working adults who reside in more than 20 other countries. In 2015 the College was selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to receive its Community Engagement Classification, highlighting the College’s focus on community service throughout its mission and daily interactions within local, regional, and global communities. In 2018, Princeton Review recognized SJC as one of its “Green Colleges” for its sustainability initiatives. Learn more at www.sjcme.edu.

 

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