The Chronicle, Vol. LXXII, Issue 20

              Man:h31,2004
Swing Batter Batter Batter...
B The baseball team returns
from South with honors and
hopes for the season
: Sarah Gomes
: Sports Editor
The pre-season Southern
ex^irsion gave The College of
Samt Rose varsity baseball
team a 5-6 record in the
wejk’s time during their stay
in Z Homestead, Florida.
Tl»oughout the week. Saint
Rose experienced its ups and
dolSm, yet came out with a lot
to ^ow for it.
^eshman third baseman
Galy Miller went 3-for-5 with
a ICBI, two runs scored and a
double in a setback to Regis.
was followed by a 3-for-
4 performance with two runs scored and a RBI
talHed in a victory over Lock Haven, granting
thcrookie Northeast-10 Conference freshman
of ihe week honors. Miller doubled in his first
codegiate at-bat in a W over Sacred Heart. Two
otltpr players were honored throughout the
weik as well, gaining Honor Roll status.
.^ io r second baseman Josh Colafemina and
seixfor designated hitter Matt Moore both
received these honors after putting up big num-bere
dowft South. Colafemina leads the team
wi^ a .439 batting average following the trip
alcmg with 11 runs, 18 hits and five doubles.
“It’s nice to be honored and everything but I
just care about winning,” Colafemina said. “I
would have rather came back with an 9-2
record.”
Moore returned with 18 hits as well along
with six doubles, five RBIs and one homerun.
The senior captain also gained the silver in the
homerun derby competition held between all
The 2004 BasebaU Team ^Courtesy o f The C o l l i e o f Saint Rose website
colleges there for spring training. As the team
returned they are already ahead of last year’s
region record.
“We came back with an 2- 0 record in the
region, last year we were 0-1,” Colafemina
said. “We are playing good ball right now and
we are coming together, improving on every
aspect of the game.” According to Colafemina,
this team’s strong areas are apparent.
“We are a lot stronger in the pitching area
and the lineup is good,” Colafemina said.
“Everyone from leadoff to the nine hole can
swing the bat, we have a lot of potential and I
think good things will happen.”
A year ago, Saint Rose posted its fourth 30-
win tally within the past five seasons with a 30-
15 overall record and a share of a
regular-season divisional title in the Northeast-
10 Conference behind an 18-9 league mark.
Head coach Bob Bellizzi, who was inducted
into the College's Athletics Hall of Fame last
summer, enters his 26th year as head
coach of the Golden Knights with a
720-372-2-career record.
“Bellizzi is a great coach who has
been around for a long time and
knows a lot about the game, so you
don’t have to second guess anything
he does,” Colafemina said. “You feel
really comfortable with him because
he knows his baseball.”
Saint Rose was give honorable
mention among other Northeast-10
conference teams in the Baseball
Writers regional poll as of March 22.
Southern Connecticut top the confer­ence
with a number two ranking, fol­lowed
by Bryant and Stonehill tied for third and
Saint Rose coming in at a strong sixth ranking.
UMass Lowell and Franklin Pierce round out
the NE-IO with numbers eight and nine.
“I think the league is real good this year so
you never know which team will come out the
strongest,” Colafemina said. “The biggest com­petition
is our selves, its up to us what we want
to accomplish and we go out everyday and play
the way we can to go far.”
IGOLF:
> CONTINUED FROM B1
Rounding out the squad are
freShmen Lee Brozyna and Scott
Daigle who look to find their
name among this years top five
fin&hers.
Also returning to The Saint
Roje golf team is second year
hejd coach Gerald Fitzgerald.
Coach Fitzgerald, who has an
array of knowledge in the sport,
alsp works as a PGA class “A”
head golf professional at the
Mi41 Road Golf Course located
in X^atham, NY. At the course,
Fi&gerald helps provide junior
gotf programs along with other
seiyices that help take a players
game to the next level. Coach
Fitegerald’s excitement for the
upi^oming golf season has
rul3)ed off on his team.
fiiior to coming to The
College of Saint Rose, Coach
Fit2:gerald had a seven-year
teiSire at Sterling Golf
Mmagement Services, Inc.
FrOim 1998 through 1999
Fitegerald worked as the
GOTeral Manager at the Franklin
Gc3f Club in Boston, after hav­ing
worked two years at the
Clwlmsford Country Club in
Cl^lmsford, Massachusetts. He
had also spent three years as an
assistant golf professional at the
Nejyton Commonwealth Golf
Ccjirse in Newton,
Massachusetts. Fitzgerald began
his^oaching as the head coach at
Chelmsford high school, where
he w oik^ for two seasons.
All in all, it looks like a
prCjmising season for the Golden
Kiiights as they enter their first
match on March 26th in Ocean
City, Maryland.
Athlete of The Week: Matt Kavanagh
Joe Raniere
Staff Writer
While most students probably used their Spring
break as a time to relax, Saint Rose sophomore Matt
Kavanaugh was making history. On March 10-13, he
represented his college at the Division Two
Nationals meet, at Erie Community College in
Buffalo. This was the first time any swimmer had
qualified for such a prestigious meet. In order to
compete at this event, you must
tie or beat the Division Two A-cut.
He accomplished this feat in
the 50-yard freestyle. He also
made four B-cuts, which one can
swim at Nationals if they have
ah-eady made it with an A-cut.
Kavanaugh has had the most
impressive run of any swimmer
in Saint Rose history. Coming
straight from the Newburgh
swim programs where Saint Rose
has picked up many swimmere in
recent years, he broke several
records his rookie year, and left
this year’s NE-10
Championships with even more,
bringing his total to 11 (six indi­vidual,
five relay). He racked up
the most first place wins for his team, in a time when
the competition continues to get harder to beat. You
can regularly see his face posted on the billboard
located in the Athletic Center, as the Athlete of the
Week. Recently, I interviewed Matt about the long,
hard road he has taken to reach this level of success,
his fiiture, and his aspirations for the Saint Rose
swim team and sport itself:
Where*d you begin your swimming career?
I started when I was in sixth grade, at the Orange
Area YWCA, where a club team called the Stingrays
practiced. I swam with them for two years, and then
moved on to focus on my high school team in
Newburgh.
What do you think reached such a high point
so early in your college swimming career?
Coach Keith Murray uses a different work ethic
Matt Kavanaugh
that my pre.vious coaches have used, which just
might have been much more suitable for a swimmer
like me. Also, the college swim season is much
longer than the high school season, so I’m playing
with a lot more time to focus on all the small things
that could make me a better swinmier.
Have you set goals for yourself or the team? If
you have, what are they?
Well for the team. I’d like to see us not only domi­nate
the NE-10 Championships, but I
would like to see us be able to leave our
mark on all of Division Two throughout
the nation. I hate losing to Southern
Connecticut, but I don’t wish to beat
them, I hope to destroy them. As for
personal goals, I’d feel fiilfilled if I
could be ranked as an All-American
swimmer, which means I’d have to
place in the top 16 at Nationals.
Do you think swimming gets
enough recognition?
On a national level, not at all, but then
again, its much more interesting to
watch a guy get sacked in football than
to watch a flip turn. I can’t even watch
swinmaing events myself sometimes.
On a campus level, I feel that in recent
years the sports information department has
improved a lot, utilizing the internet and sending
information to our local papers. More people seem
to realize how great our team really is, considering
how small the team is. But I do feel that if the team
had a bigger pool and more room for our audience,
we might draw a bigger crowd at our meets. Plus, a
bigger pool would help because a four-lane pool
wouldn’t do anything to bring in new recruits. Most
swimmers have probably never even seen such a
small pool, racing their whole lives in a six to eight-lane
pool.
.And finally, what are the benefits of being a
swimmer?
The time and energy we sacrifice has taught me a
lot about self-discipline. You obviously see the phys­ical
benefits of the sport from the exercise and prop­er
nutrition as well.
II
o Kansas scored lOO points in their NCAA
o Tournament win against UAB..,when was
the last year that a team scored lOO points
during March Madness? ^
9661 Q
PRO WFFKIY
National Football
League
-Warren Sapp joins Raiders squad , f
-Former Eagles Comerback Bobby
Taylor signs a 4 year, $11.8 million deal
withSeahawks
-Texans sign veteran Tightend Bruener
National
Basketball
Association
-Regular Season coming to a close in
three weeks
-Current Top Seeds:
East: Pacers West: Kings
-Knicks looking to stay in playoff pic­ture
but Toronto, Cleveland, Miami,
Boston and Pliiladelphia are all fighting
for the last three spots
Major League
Baseball
* 1
-New York Yankees opened up the sea­son
Tuesday morning at 5:30 am against
the Tampa bay Devil Rays in Tokyo.
-MLB continues to discuss possible
World Cup of Baseball
-Nomar Garciaparra’s achilles may keep
him out o f the line-up opening day
National Hockey
League
-Martin Brodeur gets his 400th win.
-Stanley Cup Playofife begin April
4th
-Islanders and Sabers will fight in out in
the last two weeks for the final playoff
position in the Eastern Conference. NY
has a four point lead of Buffalo right
now.
National
Collegiate Athletic
Association
-Final Four Mens Division I teams,
Duke, UCONN, Oklahoma State and
Georgia Tech square off Saturday
night in San Antonio.
-California University of Pennsylvania
wins the Division II women’s basket­ball
championship 75-72 over Drury
-Kennesaw State won men’s Division
II basketball championship 84-59 over
Southern Indiana