Bishop Earns Conference Honor at St. Michael's
St. Michael's College first-year catcher and Drury High School graduate Brooke Bishop was named the Northeast-10 Conference Rookie of the Week in mid-April.
Bishop went .389 at the plate with a .667 slugging percentage and .450 on-base percentage in a 3-3 week for the Purple Knights to earn the honor on April 21.
Last week, St. Michael's was eliminated in the NE10 tournament with a 2-0 loss to top-seed Pace, the No. 15-ranked team in Division II at the time.
Needing two wins against Pace to advance in the tourney, St. Michael's won Game 1, when Bishop went 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI. She also had a hit in the second game.
Bishop ended her first college season with a .265 batting average in 37 games (36 starts) for the 18-19 Knights. She had three home runs, seven doubles and 22 RBIs.
Emma Newberry (Mount Greylock) and the Rensselaer Polytechnic softball team (25-9) open Liberty League tournament play on Thursday against Clarkson Univerity. Newberry is hitting .154 with a pair of doubles in 13 games this spring for the Division III Engineers.
The Division I University of Rhode Island Rams (14-35) finished their regular season over the weekend. Wahconah graduate Avery Vale-Cruz has a 3.11 earned run average and a 6-5 record in 25 appearances (13 starts) for the Rams as a sophomore.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts sophomore Juliana Johansen (Pittsfield) started 17 games and appeared in 24 for the Trailblazers this spring. She compiled an 8-10 record with a 6.98 ERA. Her teammate, McCann Tech graduate Miranda Ranzoni, appeared in five games as a first-year at MCLA.
On the same day Bishop was honored in her league in softball, Taconic grad Anton Lazits was recognized on the baseball diamond as the Ivy League Player of the Week.
The Columbia senior lead the Lions to a 4-0 record that week, going .529 at the plate with seven RBIs. For the season, Lazits is hitting .273 with nine home runs and 36 RBIs. Columbia (24-17, 16-5) finished its Ivy League schedule with a win at Harvard on Sunday and opens confernce tournament play on May 16.
Elsewhere in New York City, St. John's takes a 24-20 record into Tuesday's game against Stony Brook. Monument Mountain graduate Jayder Raifstanger is third on the Red Storm with a .343 batting average. He has started all 44 games this spring and has three home runs, 33 RBIs and a .483 slugging percentage.
Staying in Division I, Cam Sime (Pittsfield) and the UMass-Lowell River Hawks are 17-29 going into Tuesday's home game against UMass-Amherst. Sime has appeared in eight games out of the bullpen this spring and has an 8.25 ERA with six strikeouts against seven walks.
The America East is full of local baseball products like Sime.
Bryant University's Evan Blake (Taconic) has played in 17 games for the 26-16-1 Bulldogs. He has a batting average of .143 with a home run and three doubles. Bryant on Tuesday has a non-league game at Merrimack College.
Down at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (18-21), Derek Paris has started 35 games behind the plate, compiling a .241 batting average with six home runs and 22 RBIs. UMBC has a midweek game against Maryland Eastern Shore on Tuesday before coming north to face the University at Albany for games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Jack Cangelosi (Mount Greylock) and the UMass-Boston Beacons open play in their league tournament on Wednesday at New Hampshire's Keene State against Rhode Island College. Cangelosi has a 4.50 ERA on the mound for the Beacons.
Another former Mountie, Jacob Thompson, is hitting .200 at this spring at the City College of New York (11-12). The Beavers open play in the City University of New York Athletic Conference tournament on Tuesday against Lehman College.
Matt Lee (Taconic) has appeared in 15 games with one start as a first-year pitcher at New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce College this spring. He leads the Ravens in strikeouts per nine innings pitched with 19.76 after ringing up 30 batters in 13 innings and two-thirds innings on the mound.
Closer to home, Chase Racine (Pittsfield) is hitting .339 with 34 RBIs in 25 games for Westfield State (26-11). Antonio Scalise (Taconic) is hitting .240 in 16 games. And Wahconah graduate Quinn Gallagher has a 3.86 ERA and a 1-0 record in nine games on the mound for the Owls, who open play in the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference on Thursday.
And, even closer to home, five Berkshire County graduates played baseball this spring at MCLA (5-30): outfielder Benjamin Jabob, pitchers Cam Harrington, Ben Cornish, Collin Booth and pitcher/shortstop Roshan Warriar. Jacob and Warriar each played in all 35 games, batting .273 and .286, respectively. Booth appeared in 12 games out of the bullpen. Harrington pitched in 11 games, starting two. Cornish threw 6 and two-thirds innings in six appearances.
In track and field, Wahconah graduate Payton Shippee is making a big impact in his first year at Kent State University. Shipppee Saturday won his second straight javelin title with a throw of 193, 3 inches in the Jesse Owens Classic at Ohio State. A week earlier, his mark of 183-11 was good enough to win the Ashland Alumni Open at Ashland University.
Another former Wahconah standout, Aryianna Garceau, last weekend lowered her own school record in the 100 meter hurdles, hitting the wire in 13.75 seconds and setting a meet record to win the Division III New England Outdoor Championship.
Caden Padelford (Wahconah) and the Siena College men's lacrosse team get to stay close to home for their NCAA Division I Tournameent opener on Wednesday. The Saints will make the short drive to face the University at Albany in the first round of the tourney. Padelford has two assists in seven games in his first season for Siena (11-4).
The MCLA men finished their season 2-9 this spring but ended on a high note, a 9-6 win over Connecticut's Mitchell College. Neal Brierley (Drury) went the distance between the pipes in that win, stopping 15 shots. His teammate, Cam LaFerriere (Taconic) started all 11 games for the Trailblazers, scoring five goals with an assist.
In women's lacrosse, Ainsley Abel (Mount Greylock) played in all 16 games this spring for Williams (7-9), scoring 10 goals and passing out four assists.
At Wesleyan College, former Mountie Sarah Polumbo helped the Cardinals go 13-5 and reach the NESCAC Championship game, where they fell to Tufts on Sunday. Polumbo played in nine games, scoring a goal on two shots.
The Mass Maritime women went 4-10 this spring. Christy Rech went 3-10 in goal with a 40.7 save percentage as a sophomore with the Buccaneers.
Sydney Smith (Wahconah) and the Westfield State women finished their year with a 9-8 loss in overtime to Framingham State in the MASCAC semi-finals over the weekend. Smith started eight games and appeared in 11 this spring, stopping 41.7 percent of the shots she faced.
In men's golf, Skidmore College first-year Patrick McLaughlin carded a round of 75 on the final day of the Liberty League Championships to place 21st and help the Thoroughbreds finish fourth in a seven-team field.
If you know a local student-athlete who should be included in a future edition of College Collage, email sports@iberkshires.com.
