NCAA REGIONAL CONTINUES: RPI, which is making its 19th trip to an NCAA Regional, is 2-0 so far and faces top seed and nationally first-ranked SUNY Cortland at 4:30pm this afternoon ... The Engineers made nine regional tournaments in the 90's, eight in the 00's and two so far in the 10's ... Making 13 straight NCAA trips from 1992 to 2004, Rensselaer has twice advanced to the College World series, doing so in 1996 and 2002.
ENGINEERS TOP OLD WESTBURY: Rensselaer received a 9.0-inning complete game from junior lefty
Greg Echeverria in beating Old Westbury, 12-2, on Thursday night ... The Engineers recorded 16 hits, including three apiece from seniors
Jared Jensen,
Tim LeSuer and
Nick Palmiero ... Sophomore
Jason Ramos finished 2 for 5 with two runs and two RBI ... Echeverria allowed two runs (1 earned) on seven hits, with seven strikeouts.
RPI SHUTS OUT KEYSTONE: Backed by 7.2 innings of shutout pitching from senior
Jared Jensen, Rensselaer was able to silence the potent offense of Keystone College on Wednesday night to the tune of a 2-0 victory ... The Engineers plated two runs in the first inning and held on the rest of the way for the tournament-opening win ... Jensen went 1 for 4 at the dish with a run scored, while sophomore
Thomas Desmond finished 1 for 4 with an RBI-single ... Senior righthander
Sean Conroy pitched the final 1.2 innings to earn the save, striking out three.
IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Rensselaer is 31-36 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, including a 30-32 mark in regional action.
LEAGUE CHAMPS: RPI became just the second school in Liberty League Tournament history to lose its first game and come back to win the title by winning its next four games ... Skidmore turned the trick in 2012 ... RPI fell to RIT, 10-8, to open tournament play, before battling back with wins over Rochester (11-7) and Clarkson (10-3) ... In a rematch with the Tigers in the championship round, Rensselaer won by scores of 13-9 and 10-5 to earn the championship plaque.
FOLLOW THE ACTION: Live statistics for all New York Regional games can be found at http://colfax.cortland.edu/athletics/baseball/live/xlive.htm.
ON THE AIR: RPI's NCAA New York Regional games can be heard live on 91.5 FM, WRPI or online at www.wrpi.org/listen.
RENSSELAER BATTING LEADERS: Senior second baseman
Tim LeSuer is batting a team-best .422 (65 for 154) with 11 doubles, one triple, one home run, 47 runs scored and 35 runs batted in ... He has a .526 slugging percentage and a .528 on-base percentage ... Classmate and captain
Jared Jensen is hitting .371 (59 for 159) with a club-best 57 runs, 12 doubles, four triples, seven home runs and 36 RBI ... Sophomore
Jason Ramos rounds out the top three hitters at .362 (29 for 80) with five doubles, a homer, 18 runs and 19 RBI.
MAY DAY: The Engineers are 9-2 in the month of May and are hitting .318 as a team ... Senior
Tim LeSuer has started all 11 games and is batting .524 (22 for 42) with three doubles, a home run, eight runs and 11 runs batted in ... Sophomore
Jason Ramos is hitting .444 (12 for 27) with two doubles, eight runs and seven RBI, while walking six times ... Sophomore
Matt Lawrence is at .381 (8 for 21) with a double, six runs and three RBI ... On the hill, senior
Jared Jensen is 3-0 with a 0.36 ERA in three starts, notching 20 strikeouts in 24.2 innings ... Classmate
Sean Conroy is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in 19.0 innings, recording 21 Ks and a save in three relief appearances.
TOUGHEST TO K: Senior
Tim LeSuer has gone down on strikes just twice in 154 at-bats, which is the best ratio in the nation ... He has drawn 29 walks and been hit by eight pitches for a .528 on-base percentage.
UPCOMING MILESTONE: Senior
Tim LeSuer has 198 career hits between Rochester, where he played his freshman season, and Rensselaer.
PITCHING LEADERS: Senior
Sean Conroy is 6-1 with a 1.80 earned run average in 14 appearances (11 starts) ... He has allowed just 57 hits in 75.0 innings, striking out 81, while walking 19 ... Opponents hit .210 off of him ... Senior
Jared Jensen (7-2) has a 2.21 ERA in 10 appearances (9 starts), including six complete games ... He has recorded 46 strikeouts in 61.0 innings ... Junior
Greg Echeverria (7-3) has a 2.41 ERA in 12 appearances (11 starts) ... He has a 70-to-12 strikeouts-to-walks ratio in 82.0 innings of work, while allowing a .252 opponent average ... Classmate
Stephen Schiavone (1-1) has made a team-high 16 relief appearances, registering a 4.78 ERA in 26.1 innings.
PITCHER OF THE YEAR: Senior righthander
Sean Conroy was named the Liberty League Pitcher of the Year after posting a 5-0 record with a 1.48 ERA in six league starts, which included four complete games and a shutout ... He surrendered 10 runs (7 earned) in 42.2 innings, striking out 50 and walking 10, while allowing a .220 opponent average.
SIX SELECTED TO ALL-LEAGUE TEAMS:
Sean Conroy,
Greg Echeverria,
Jared Jensen and
Tim LeSuer were all named to All-Liberty League First Team ...
Nick Palmiero earned Second Team honors, while
Thomas Desmond garnered Honorable Mention.
ENGINEERS SWEEP WEEKLY AWARDS: The Liberty League announced its weekly award winners on May 11 ...
Tim LeSuer and
Jared Jensen were named Performer and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, while
Jason Ramos earned Rookie of the Week ... LeSuer hit .545 (12 for 22) with a double, his first collegiate home run, five runs and seven runs batted in ... Jensen went 1-0 with a 1.00 earned run average in his only start last week, going 9.0 innings ... Ramos hit a team-best .583 (7 for 12) with five runs and four runs batted in.
STREAKS ALIVE: With his three hits last night, senior
Tim LeSuer extended his season-long hitting streak to 10 games, while boosting his reached base streak to 24 contests ... Sophomore
Jason Ramos has a hit in six straight games, while senior
Tyler Listing has gotten on base in 14 consecutive contests.
SCOUTING CORTLAND: The 2015 SUNYAC Champions and nationally first-ranked Red Dragons come into Thursday game with a 38-4 overall record, having won NCAA Tournament games over Oberlin (6-4) and Amherst (7-5) ... Cortland is led by Matt Personius at .450 (18 for 40) with two doubles, a triple, a home run and 12 runs batted in ... Conrad Ziemendorf is hitting .351 (46 for 131) with team-highs in runs (43), doubles (14) and runs batted in (37) ... On the mound, Seth Lambrado is 5-0 with a 0.84 ERA in 32.1 innings.
IN THE WORLD SERIES: RPI has twice advanced to the College World Series, bowing out in two games in 1996, before going 1-2 in 2002.
ALL-TIME VS. NY REGIONAL: Rensselaer is 6-15 against Cortland in the NCAA Tournament ... The Red Dragons have won five straight meetings, dating back to 2004 ... RPI's last victory in the series came in 2002, propeling the squad to its second ever World Series appearance ... The Engineers now are 2-0 against Old Westbury.
