2012 Schedule

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Nov. 22, 2011) – The Mercy College baseball team announced its spring 2012 schedule, which will consist of 19 home matchups.  Head Coach Bob Greiner and the Mavericks will open the season on Feb. 25 at Adelphi University, which ranked second in the East region last year.

There will be one major change in East Coast Conference play this season; teams will face each other only four times rather than five, although Mercy has scheduled non-conference fifth games against Dowling College and C.W. Post.

The Mavericks will take their annual mid-March trip to Florida to train and play a total of 13 games at the Longwood Athletic Complex in Fort Pierce, Fla. Among others, Mercy will take on last year's East region No. 5 UMass-Lowell, No. 3 Franklin Pierce University and No. 1 Southern Connecticut State University, which reached the semi-finals of the NCAA Championship.

The squad will then return to Dobbs Ferry to play its home opener on March 21 against Dowling, which finished third in the conference last season. 

Mercy's first weekend action will come as the Lions of Molloy College challenge the Mavericks in a doubleheader on March 24 followed by a third game at Molloy on Sunday.  Last year's ECC champion and No. 8 team in the East region, Molloy posted a 31-20 overall record (22-8 in the ECC) last season and returns ECC Player of the Year Chuck Fontana, a senior pitcher who was also named a Daktronics Third Team All-American and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Honorable Mention All-American.  Molloy held the edge in last year's five-game series, 3-2, but the Mavericks posted shutouts in both their wins.

After facing the Lions, Mercy will travel to Queens College and C.W. Post before opening the month of April hosting C.W. Post, St. Thomas Aquinas College and the University of Bridgeport. The Mavericks will also play several non-conference games throughout April and early in May against Caldwell College Felician College Nyack College and Bloomfield University.

Mercy will close out its home ECC slate with against STAC on April 29 and end the season hosting a doubleheader with Dominican (N.Y.) College on May 5.

The Mavericks finished last season with a 17-28 overall record (10-20 in the ECC) and return All-ECC Second Team senior pitcher Tyler Savin (Wantagh, N.Y.), who led the team with a 5-4 record and 3.08 ERA over 61 1/3 innings pitched, tossing two complete games and one shutout.  Joining Savin are seven more of the Mavericks' top nine pitchers last season.

Six field players who made at least 20 starts last season also return, including four freshmen.  Junior outfielder Andrew Bock (Malverne, N.Y.) and senior outfielder Mike Gianzero (Highland Mills, N.Y.) will lead the returning players.  Bock's .356 on-base percentage, 12 stolen bases and 26 runs last season were tops among the current squad and he will be looked to as the catalyst for the offense again this year.  Gianzero and freshman infielder Anthony Simon (Sloatsburg, N.Y.) tied for the team lead last season in triples, while Simon led the squad in assists as well.