Baseball

Five Baseball Players Garner All-CACC Plaudits

May 8, 2008

NEW HAVEN, Conn.-After finishing the regular season winning 10 of its last 11 games to finish with a school-record 25 wins, the Post University baseball team, had five players earn Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) All-Conference honors, led by junior third baseman Corey Huffine (Colorado Springs, Colo./McCook C.C.), who was named to the All-CACC first-team, in a vote by the league's 10 head coach's Wednesday evening at Wilmington College.

"It's great that the Post baseball program and its players are being recognized in the same regard as some very quality players," Head Coach AJ McNamara said following the announcement.

Huffine, was the lone Eagle on the CACC first-team, while senior DH Eric Rovinetti (Watertown, Conn./Southern Connecticut State Univ.) and junior LHP Ben Schoenberg (Sugarland, Texas/Cedar Creek C.C.) each earned CACC second-team kudos.

Junior OF/P Johnny Figueroa (Bronx, N.Y./Monroe College) and junior second baseman Dan Luisi (Bethpage, N.Y./Holy Trinity) earned CACC Honorable Mention honors. 

In his first season for the Green and White, Huffine is tied for third in the conference with 60 hits. He is batting .333 with 12 doubles, a triple, a homerun, 35 runs scored, and 21 runs batted in. Huffine also has 13 multi-hit games for the Eagles this season, and has four multi-RBI games as well. He is tied for the longest hitting streak on the team with an 11-game streak from April 6-19.

 "Corey is hands down one of the better overall players in the region," McNamara said. "He is as close to a 5-tool player I have seen all year."

Rovinetti, had a phenomenal senior season setting career marks in just about every offensive category. He is hitting .378 with nine doubles, one triple, 33 runs scored, and 28 runs batted in.

Rovinetti is fifth in the CACC in hitting, second in the conference with a .503 on-base percentage, and leads the CACC with 36 walks. In conference games, the outfielder/DH hit .376 with 15 runs batted in. He leads the team with 16 multi-hit games, and is tied for the team lead with seven multi-RBI games this season.

"Eric deserved a first-team selection," McNamara said. "But, it was a very difficult vote considering all the quality players in the conference this year. Overall, Eric was one of the top-10 players in the conference and I know he was well-respected from all the conference coaches.

Schoenberg is 7-1 on the season with 3.49 ERA. He tied the school-record for wins, and is currently tied with Caldwell's Robert Casal, for the most wins in the conference. The Texan has struck out 37, walked 13 and allowed 26 earned runs in 67.0 innings of work. Against Nyack on April 8, he allowed just one runs on three hits, while striking out a season-high 10 batters.

Ben was definitely one of the best pitchers in the conference this year," McNamara said. "We always knew what we were going to get when he went out there."

Figueroa has come on strong as of late, hitting .356 with eight doubles, three triples, two homeruns and 15 runs batted in, in 87 at-bats this season for the Eagles. He has the longest active hitting streak on the team this season, hitting safely in the last 11 games. He has a .586 slugging percentage, and a .429 on-base percentage.

Luisi is second in the conference with 41 runs scored. He is hitting .310 with 52 hits, four doubles, one triple, and 20 runs batted in. Luisi was also successful with 12-of-15 stolen base attempts.

"We're trying very hard to place this program in the upper echelon of the CACC, and the key is to be successful overall as a program so that your players get recognized for their individual success," McNamara said. "I don't think we're quite there yet but we're making progress each day. Hopefully with continued hard work and enthusiasm, we can continue to have great success both as a program as well as with individual honors."

Post finished the regular season with a 25-23 overall record and a 16-11 record in the CACC. The Eagles were one of the hottest teams in the conference if not the region during the last month, winning 15 of their final 17 games of the regular season. Since McNamara assumed the reigns of the program, the team has improved upon its record from the previous season, in each of the two years.

Nyack's Cody Levins was named CACC Player of the Year, Casal was named CACC Pitcher of the Year, Hector Bello of Felician was named CACC Rookie of the Year, and Mark Heineman of Philadelphia University was named CACC Coach of the Year. Philadelphia also earned the team sportsmanship award.