Spring Trip Schedule Announced

Edited on 12/31/09

STANDISH, ME - The Saint Joseph's College Baseball program has announced its spring trip schedule for the upcoming season.

For the second consecutive season, the Monks will open play with a trip to Winter Haven, Florida and compete in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. St. Joe's will play nine games during the week-long southern swing. All start times and field designations are TBA.

In addition, the Saint Joseph's junior varsity squad will play games against Kings College, Waynesburg University and Sullivan Community College during the trip.

The varsity schedule promises to be one of the most difficult the Monks have experienced in recent memory. The docket features three New England opponents in Clark, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Wentworth and Saint Joseph's will square off against three non-region opponents, Loras College (Iowa), William Paterson (NJ) and Aurora (IL) , as well.

These six teams posted a collective record of 144-96 (.600) last spring, with all six advancing to their respective conference tournaments following the regular season. 

The action begins with a twinbill against Clark, a NEWMAC opponent that went 14-21 overall and 4-8 in conference play last spring. The Monks have played the Cougars just once - a 6-5 loss in Port Charlotte, FL on March 3^rd, 2008.

For the third straight season, St. Joe's will take on WPI during spring break in a doubleheader on March 8^th. The Engineers posted a 30-13 overall record and played to a 9-3 tilt in NEWMAC play en route to the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance last spring.

WPI and St. Joe's have split in each of the last two seasons in Florida, with the Monks winning the last matchup in a 15-14 slugfest last spring in Winter Haven. Overall, the Engineers have won three of the five games between the New England Region teams.

After an off-day, the Monks will take on an unfamiliar opponent in Loras College in a doubleheader on March 10^th. The Duhawks captured the top seed in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, for the first time in 57 years, after posting a 15-7 league record and having gone 25-14 overall.

St. Joe's and Loras have never met on the diamond and the only meeting between the catholic liberal arts schools occurred in 1994, when the Duhawks topped the Monks, 85-75, in men's basketball action.

With six games under their belt, the Monks will close out the trip with three nine-inning contests, the first of which coming on March 11^th against Wentworth Institute. The Leopards played to a 22-18-1 tilt and went 11-10-1 in TCCC play last spring. In mid-April, Wentworth held a 20-6-1 record and was ranked in the New England Coaches Poll, but a late season slide, and an early exit in the TCCC tourney, forced the Leopards to settle for an ECAC Tournament berth, the second-straight bid for the program.

Wentworth defeated Saint Joseph's, 7-3, in the only game between the teams - a spring trip meeting in 2004.

William Paterson and Saint Joseph's will square off on March 12^th in another first-time meeting. The Pioneers (24-17 overall, 12-6 NJAC) saw their 2009 campaign come to a close when they fell to The College of New Jersey in the New Jersey Athletic Conference championship last spring.

In the only meeting between the two schools, William Paterson defeated St. Joe's, 83-71, in a men's basketball game during the 1998 season.

Saint Joseph's will close out its southern swing with a nine-inning game against Aurora University, a program from Illinois that went 29-13 overall and 16-6 in Northern Athletics Conference play last spring. The Spartans advanced to the conference championship in 2009 and capped the year with a .534 team slugging percentage, good for 14^th in all of NCAA DIII Baseball, as well as a 3.69 team earned run average, which ranked 15^th in the country.

The March 13^th meeting will be the first ever between the two schools.

Saint Joseph's has notched four 30-win seasons and four conference titles with three NCAA DIII Regional Tournament appearances in the last five years. Since 2005, St. Joe's has a better winning percentage (.711) than all but four New England Region teams and just five programs have more wins than the Monks (155) in the last five years.