CUMBERLAND — The NJCAA College World Series in Enid, Oklahoma is the next stop on Allegany College of Maryland’s season itinerary, but the national-ranked Trojans must first take advantage of The Rock’s comfortable surroundings to beat Burlington, N.J., in the NJCAA Division II Northeast District Tournament beginning today at noon.
Game two of the best-of-three series will begin around 3 p.m., and if necessary, the third game will be played Saturday at noon.
The Trojans, ranked No. 8 in the latest Division II poll, earned a spot in the Northeast District Tournament by beating Essex, 7-6, Sunday in the Region XX finals. The Barons, from Pemberton, N.J., won the Region XIX tournament by beating Lackawanna, 3-0, on Monday. It was the first Region title in 40 years of baseball at Burlington.
The Trojans will be playing for their eighth trip to the World Series. Four of the previous seven trips were in consecutive years from 1994-97.
Allegany (45-13) brings an extremely strong pitching staff into the tourney with Andy Lytle leading the charge. Lytle is 23rd in the country with a 1.86 earned run average. With eight wins in his 10 decisions, the Altoona, Pa., native leads the team with 79 strikeouts to just 22 walks. Ryan MacNamara supplies another strong punch with an ERA of 2.53 in his 15 starts. Second on the team with 77 strikeouts, he has allowed 24 bases on balls.
Offensively, Jerry Lloyd boasts the second-highest average in all of Division II at .549. He’s collected 89 hits in 162 at bats with 12 doubles, six home runs and 52 RBIs. Ethan Newton and A.J. Czap both check in with a batting average of .412. Czap leads the team with 58 runs batted in and has four home runs. Tommie Reams is tied with Lloyd for the team lead in home runs with six despite getting just 65 at bats.
The Barons enter the weekend with a 39-18 record and are led at the plate by Matt Weaver. Weaver leads the team with a .452 batting average, compiling 84 hits. He also leads the team with 13 home runs, an .839 slugging percentage and 71 runs batted in. He’s also stolen 28 bases in 33 tries. Frank Sirolli brings a .429 average to Cumberland, and Drew Pettit is hitting .413 with nine home runs and 54 RBIs.
Blas Polanco, Kyle Gieryck and Zack Koss have been Burlington’s load bearers on the mound this season. Polanco has a 7-2 record with 70 2/3 innings thrown, and an ERA of 3.38. Gieryck averages 3.84 earned runs a game, and is 4-2 after throwing 70 1/3 innings. Zack Koss holds a 7-1 record with five complete games and has an ERA of 4.06.
Weaver has also earned four saves and has 18 strikeouts in 16 innings.
The only common opponent the two teams share is Garrett College. The Barons beat the Lakers 7-3 and 12-2 in late February, while the Trojans split their two games. They beat Garrett 13-0 in McHenry on March 4, and lost 6-5 at Allegany on April 9.
Chris Appel is a sportswriter for the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Chris Appel at cappel@times-news.com.
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