Baseball Begins 2020 Season At FIU

Miami, Fla. – (February 13, 2020) – The defense of Fordham Baseball's Atlantic 10 Championship begins this weekend in Florida, when the Rams head to Miami for a three-game series with the FIU Panthers at FIU Baseball Stadium.
 
Under the direction of ninth-year head coach Kevin Leighton, Fordham returns the majority of last year's starting lineup, highlighted by a pair of .300 hitters in Jake Baker and Jake MacKenzie, and two-thirds of its weekend rotation with All-American and defending Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year John Stankiewicz and left-hander Matt Mikulski.
 
As a part of winning the Atlantic 10 Championship and reaching the NCAA Regional for the first time since 1998, the Rams led the nation in stolen bases for the second consecutive year in 2019, setting a school record with 178, while also setting a new team record with 605 strikeouts.  The team also set modern day (after 1920) team marks for wins (38), ERA (3.26), and opponent batting average (.222).
 
Picked sixth in the Conference USA preseason poll, FIU enters 2020 after a 23-32 season with a 12-18 mark in Conference USA.  The Panthers are led by LHP Logan Allen, who was selected as the Preseason Pitcher of the Year in Conference USA.  He was a three-time Pitcher of the Week last season, posting a 3.11 ERA and holding opponents to a .231 average.

 

PROBABLE STARTERS/GAME COVERAGE:
Friday: Fordham – LHP Matt Mikulski vs. FIU - LHP Logan Allen // Live Video (ESPN3) | Live Stats | Twitter - @FordhamBaseball
 
Saturday: Fordham - RHP John Stankiewicz vs. FIU - RHP Tyler Myrick // Live Stats | Twitter - @FordhamBaseball

Sunday: Fordham - RHP Joseph Quintal vs. FIU - LHP Will Saxton // Live Video (CUSA.TV) | Live Stats | Twitter - @FordhamBaseball
 
SERIES HISTORY: Fordham and FIU have played 12 games against each other since the first meeting back in 1983. FIU holds a 10-2 mark against the Rams, with the last meetings coming in 2012 during a three-game series.  The Panthers grabbed two of those three games in 2012 with Fordham taking the middle game of the series.
 
FORDHAM PICKED SECOND IN A-10 PRESEASON COACHES POLL (2/11): The Atlantic 10 Conference released its preseason baseball coaches poll this afternoon with Fordham being picked second out of 13 teams in a vote of the league's head coaches.  Fordham, the defending Atlantic 10 champions, was one of three teams to receive a first place votes in the poll with two, along with VCU (8) and Dayton (3).
 
VCU is the preseason favorite, followed by Fordham, Dayton, Richmond, Davidson, Saint Louis, Rhode Island, George Washington, Saint Joseph's George Mason, Massachusetts, La Salle, and St. Bonaventure.  All 13 teams will vie for a spot in the 2020 Atlantic 10 Championship, which will be at The Diamond in Richmond, Virginia, May 20-23.

 

STANKIEWICZ NAMED TO NCBWA PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM (2/6): With the start of college baseball season just around the corner, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) released its 2020 Division I Preseason All-America teams.  Among those selected, Fordham junior pitcher John Stankiewicz received Preseason All-America Second Team honors.
 
The Cherry Hill, N.J. native enters his junior campaign after an incredible 2019 season, which saw him earn Third Team All-America honors from the NCBWA, the ABCA, and Collegiate Baseball.
 
One of the top prospects in the Atlantic 10 heading into the 2020 season by Baseball America and D1Baseball.com, Stankiewicz was the 2019 Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year and a First Team All-Atlantic 10 selection, helping the Rams to their first conference title and first NCAA appearance since 1998.  Stankiewicz recorded a team-high eight wins to go with a 1.47 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 92.0 innings.  He has walked only 20 batters this season and held opponents to a .190 batting average. 
 
He was the fourth Ram ever to record 100 strikeouts in a season, and ranked third on the Fordham single season list behind only Dick Egan (107 – 1909) and Hank Borowy (115 – 1939), while his 1.47 ERA tied for the fifth-lowest in program history with former MLB All-Star Johnny Murphy (1929).  A three-time Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week in 2019, he ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA in ERA (6^th) and WHIP (10^th).
 
SPEED KILLS: While some teams win with power, the Rams capitalize on their team speed to win ballgames.  Fordham led the NCAA in stolen bases for the second straight season in 2019, racking up a school record 178 bags.  Of that total, current Rams accounted for 173 in that total, led by junior Jake MacKenzie, who led the Atlantic 10 with 43 stolen bases.  He was one of seven players to reach double figures, joining Alvin Melendez (35), Jake Baker (17), C.J. Vazquez (16), Jason Coules (15), Matt Tarabek (14), and Billy Godrick (11).
 
RAC"K" 'EM UP: In what's turned into a year occurrence, Fordham's pitching staff once again set a new mark for strikeouts in a season in 2019.  Breaking the team record for the fifth straight year, the Rams eclipsed 600 punchouts for the first time in team history, finishing with 605.  For Rams that pitched at least 20 innings, 12 Fordham hurlers had at least 20 strikeouts on the season, led by All-American John Stankiewicz with 102 and Matt Mikulski with 89.  The pitching staff ranked in the top 15 in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings, as well as ERA (3.26).
 
WHO'S NEXT: The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, February 19^th, when the Fordham hosts LIU at Houlihan Park, beginning at 2:00 PM.  Fordham then hits the road for four games in Phoenix Arizona, February 21-23, when Fordham will play a pair of games against Cal St. Northridge and two against Grand Canyon.  All games are at Grand Canyon University.