2008 St. Joseph’s Baseball Preview
Revamped Golden Eagles Anticipating a Great ‘08

March 3, 2008

Patchogue, NY - The Golden Eagles have added seventeen new faces for 2008 and have lost five of their top pitchers but that didn’t matter to D3baseball.com as they picked the Golden Eagles to take the Skyline Conference Championship this year. 
 
“This season will give a lot of players a chance to prove themselves. We are looking forward to see what our young players could do and how well they handle our top ranked schedule,” said Coach Randy Caden, who is entering his eighth season at the helm of the program.

The pitching staff is young but Caden still has experienced pitchers that should carry them through the season.  Senior Zack Keckley and junior Chris Patronaggio are the veterans on the staff who will lead the SJC hurlers.  Sophomores Frank Tucker, Ron Eichhorn and John Okerblom have a year under their belt to finish the weekend chores. A talented freshman crop led by Joe Benkert will get plenty of work and should lay the groundwork to the development of a nice staff for future years.

The infield is ready to go as sophomore Mike Gerdes returns from a hand injury and junior Matt Timmons fills the shortstop spot.  The corners will be handled by sophomore Jon Welsh and freshman Chris Wright at first and freshman newcomers Frank Dipresso and Nick Rizzo at the hot corner.  Sophomore transfer Jeff Coyle was an All-American selection while playing at Suffolk CC and will add to this talented infield.

The outfield features returning starters Fred Morales (SR), Ryan Carroll (SO), and Mark Cisek (SO), and the addition of freshman Mike Lanza.  They can all handle the fly ball, have good speed and arms and swing a strong bat.
 
The bench is deep as Paul Cangelosi (JR), Joe Kennelly (SO), Dan Phelan (FR) and Charlie Zilnicki (FR) should all see time in the field.

The catching corps are led by senior captain John Schwenzer and fellow senior Mike Hernandez with freshmen John Agozta and Paul Marino in the bullpen.