The Bear Facts

Bears Baseball will play the first intercollegiate competition for SJC athletics since the pandemic halted the 2020 spring season prematurely and the baseball team completing just three games. Under the direction of head coach Pete Blumenauer, the Bears return 14 members from last season, including a quartet of seniors and a pair of grad students, while welcoming 10 new faces to the roster. 

C.J. Bunnicelli and Matt Rienzi return as veterans of the pitching staff. Bunnicelli made one start in 2020, going five innings and striking out two and made 12 appearances in 2019; including nine starts and a complete game. His 49 innings and 34 strikeouts were good for second on the team; totaling a 5.40 ERA and a pair of wins. Rienzi posted a 2.25 ERA in two games last season and produced the lowest ERA (3.48) in 2019 over 20.2 innings pitched in 14 appearances. 

Grad student Will DeLuca made 10 appearances on the mound in 2019, going 3-2 with a save while striking out 30 over 29.2 innings. Defensively, the Long Island product fielded at a .973 clip and led the team with 190 putouts as a junior. DeLuca also made 117 plate appearances, posting .444 slugging percentage, 30 hits and driving in 18 runs; including five home runs. In 121 at-bats, senior Kevin Reyes’ 24 RBI and 12 extra-base hits were good for second on the team. 

Louis Lombardi struck out 29 batters in 26 innings of work, picking up a win and a save. Lombardi’s .980 fielding percentage was good for second on the team in 2019. He made 43 plate appearances; slugging .302, compiling eight hits, a pair of doubles and a home run.

Sophomore Chris Leary produced three hits, a run scored and an RBI in his team-leading 14 plate appearances in 2020 while fellow underclassman Lucas Collet led SJC with 4 RBI, going 4-9.

The Bears hold a 10-4 edge in the all-time series and won 10 straight from 2012 to 2018, but the Dolphins took both ends of the doubleheader in 2019 for their first wins since the series started in 2010.

Dolphin Tales

Following a first-round exit in the 2019 Skyline Championship and a 2020 campaign cut short after a 2-2 start, Mount Saint Vincent returns to play under the direction of fourth-year head coach John Muller. Junior Jordan Perykasz was the Dolphins’ leader at the plate in 13 at-bats during the abbreviated season; averaging .615 and slugging at a .769 clip with eight hits, five RBI and four runs scored.

Fellow juniors Michael Grisanti and Jake Blinstrub are also returning for CMSV. Starting all but one game in 2019, Grisanti’s team-leading .405 batting average and .643 slugging percentage were good for second in the Skyline in both categories. He also racked up top-five numbers in hits (51) and on-base percentage (.487) while accumulating 30 RBI and 26 runs.

Blinstrub led the conference in 2019 with 157 plate appearances, 38 runs, 14 doubles, and had top 10 numbers in hits (55) and RBI (32).

Junior Peter Sanderson led the team as a rookie with a 3.44 ERA in 52.1 innings of work. His 50 strikeouts also led the squad en route to a 4-3 record on the bump. Joining him in the Dolphins’ pitching staff is grad student Amir Nitowski, who went 4-4 in 11 appearances and posted a 3.91 ERA and 26 K’s.