With their 7th place finish in the 2023 season, the Mount barely missed out on a trip to the conference championship in Pomona, New York as they finished 3.5 games behind Manhattan, who sat in the coveted 6th and final playoff spot for the conference. With the top six teams in the conference standings making the playoffs, the Mount barely made the postseason. However, this comes in their first season as a MAAC school, an arguably tougher conference than the previous Northeast Conference’s baseball division. On the eve of the team’s first playoff appearance in seven years, who will be the leading men for coach Frank Leoni’s team as they travel to New York for the conference playoffs?
The team as a whole has 11 total qualified batters batting above the Mendoza Line, which is a batting average above .200. Leading the team in batting average was Scott Seeker (C’24), who had a batting average of .349 and an OPS of 1.084. Seeker also hit nine homeruns, co-leading in that category with Shane Wockley (C’24) who had a slugging percentage of .470. Seeker also leads the team with 119 total bases and a slugging percentage of .610, the most among qualified batters.
Stand outs on the team with respect to dominance on the plate and on the base path include Tyler Long (C’24) and Aiden Tierney (C’24) who were both threats to pitchers and fielders. Long batted in a standout .310 batting average, only second to Seeker, and 15 stolen bases in a attempted 18. Long contributed as well with 12 stolen bases in an attempted 13 and added to his base stealing prowess with a batting average of .293. This made him both a threat at the plate while on his way to steal a bag.
The story of the 2024 season would be incomplete without the telling of the talent of Deven Sheerin (C’27). The first-year student in his first campaign with the Mountaineers broke the single season strikeout record with one shy of a century at 99. This beat the 88 strikeouts in a season thrown by Dustin Pease, who set the latest record in 2004. Sheerin also posted a ERA of 4.82 and a WHIP of 1.09 while having a record of 5-4 in 61.2 innings of work for the Mount.
Another pitcher, that along with Sheerin, helped guarantee a strong starting corps of pitchers was Brendan Yagesh (C’26). Posting a team leading 3.25 ERA, Yagesh was a great secondary to the staff behind Sheerin as he struck out 66 while having a WHIP of 1.35 through 63.2 innings. His record reflected a 2-3 record although this is not as serious of a separation in the ways the bullpen held together the games. Yagesh also only let up three homeruns to the opposition all year long, signifying his soft contact style of pitching on the mound.
The quality of opposition faced this year in the MAAC may be a signal to how the conference competition was in respect to teams as a whole. Finishing at the top were regular season co-champions in Fairfield and Niagara who both topped out at 20-4. The two co-leaders were followed by Rider who posted a record of 18-6 to get them into 3rd place. The Mount came in 4th with a record of 13-11, finishing three places ahead of where they finished in last years rendition of the MAAC regular season. They were followed by Canisius who finished 5th with a conference record of 11-13 who beat out Marist by one game to settle in 5th place. The aforementioned Marist finished in the final playoff spot of 6th. While their record of 10-14 was equal to that of Manhattan, the Red Foxes advanced on head-to-head record with the Jaspers.
A sweep of Iona away and series wins against Manhattan, Rider, Canisius, and Saint Peter’s guaranteed the Mount a successful conference season as they rounded out the year. Visits to Maryland, Mississippi State, and Portland outlined tough out of conference play, both in quality of play and in travel time. But the jewel of the Mount’s season this year came in a six-game win streak that was sustained from April 23rd to 28th. Wins in this period included the sweep of Iona in conference as well as out of conference wins against the Naval Academy and University of Maryland, Eastern Shore who went 0-48, not winning a single game all season long.
The success of this year’s conference play for the Mount has earned them their first appearance in a conference playoff since 2018 and their first ever appearance in the MAAC playoffs since the school joined the conference in 2022. This comes at the right time, as their junior year in the MAAC was one of opportunity. While teams that had dominated in the past such as Manhattan had faltered this season, head coach Frank Leoni and his staff saw a gap that they could fit into with regards to playoff seeding. They won the games necessary to qualify and have made the mark worthy to be in the playoffs, make no mistake about it. Their first ever MAAC playoff game will be on May 22nd against Canisius in Pomona, New York as they look to compete for their first ever MAAC title and a spot in the National Tournament.
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