Franklin
Pierce Gets RINDGE,
N.H. (January 31, 2005) – The Franklin Pierce baseball team has earned its
first preseason Top 25 ranking in program history with a spot at No.
23 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Division II Preseason
Coaches’ Poll.
Franklin Pierce was ranked No. 30 in last year’s Collegiate
Baseball preseason poll after reaching the Division II College
World Series in 2003. The Ravens highest national ranking of No. 7
came in the final 2003 poll.
Franklin Pierce returns 20 letterwinners (seven starting
position players and five starting pitchers) from a 2004 squad which
posted a 32-23 record overall, 23-8 in Northeast-10 Conference play.
The Ravens narrowly missed out on a return trip to the NCAA
Tournament, but regrouped to claim their second ECAC Championship in
three seasons.
Franklin Pierce, behind seventh-year head coach Jayson
King, will be in search of a program-record fourth-straight
30-win season and the second NCAA Tournament trip in program history
this spring.
Heading the list of returnees for Franklin Pierce this spring
are junior All-Northeast Region performers Mike Chambers
(Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) and Keith Brouillard
(Westport, Mass./Somerset). Chambers hit .338 (68-201) as a
sophomore, with 32 runs scored, 16 doubles, four home runs, 37 RBI and
11 stolen bases to go with a .478 slugging and .414 on-base
percentage. Brouillard posted an 8-1 record on the mound with one
save, a 2.76 ERA, 68 strikeouts and just 18 walks in 88 innings of
work over 14 appearances, ten starts last season, with five
complete-games and two shutouts. Opposing batters hit just .227
against him last spring. |
