Bridgeport Baseball Slotted Number Two In 2020 Preseason ECC Coaches' Poll

West Babylon, N.Y. - After an amazing turnaround season that culminated in a trip to the NCAA Division II World Series in 2019, the New York Tech baseball team begins the 2020 campaign as a unanimous choice for first place in the East Coast Conference preseason coaches' poll. New York Tech sophomore outfielder EJ Cumbo (East Meadow, N.Y.) was also selected as the Preseason Player of the Year, while Molloy senior Timothy Panetta (Broad Channel, N.Y.) earned the Preseason Pitcher of the Year honor. 

The Bears received all seven first-place votes to top the poll with 49 points. Expectations are high for Tech after a remarkable turnaround together under rookie head coach Frank Catalanotto. The Bears improved their win total from 13 to 37 and won the NCAA East Region Championship.

Also ranked No. 10 in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine national preseason poll, the Bears return nearly their entire roster intact. Eight of 10 position players who had over 100 at-bats, All-Conference honorees Cumbo, John LaRocca, Ryan Kuskowski, and Ben McNeill among them, will return to the lineup. The pitching staff is even more intact. Hurlers who accounted for 440.2 of the team's 453.0 innings pitched, including All-Conference picks DJ Masuck, Josephy Murphy, and Ariel Taveras, are back in the fold. The pitching staff also gets a boost with the addition of Division I transfers, Bobby Vath and Andrew Imperatore, and the return of Brandon Alberto, who sat out 2019 with an injury.

Bridgeport came in second in the poll with 38 points. After another run to the final of last season's ECC Championship, the Purple Knights have now finished as conference runner-up in six of the past nine seasons. Molloy is next at No. 3 with 33 points.

Queens is the final expected ECC Championship participant at No. 4 after topping St. Thomas Aquinas by one point and Mercy by two points. The Knights ended a 20-year postseason drought by qualifying for last year's conference tournament. Lincoln is the final team in the poll at No. 7.

Cumbo took the conference by storm in his redshirt-freshman season. He led the ECC in batting average (.437), on-base percentage (.510), slugging percentage (.665), and total bases (111), while also ranking in the top-three in the ECC with 73 hits, seven home runs, 44 runs batted in, and 23 stolen bases. His batting average was also good for fifth in all of Division II. His outstanding season earned him numerous accolades. Cumbo was selected as the ECC Player of the Year and was a consensus All-Region and All-America honoree.

Panetta was selected as the Preseason Pitcher of the Year after earning Second Team All-Conference honors a year ago. He finished with a 5-5 record with 69 strikeouts and a 4.16 earned run average over 67.0 innings pitched. His win and strikeout totals were both good for sixth in the conference.

2020 ECC Baseball Preseason Poll

 () - first place votes

Preseason Player of the Year: EJ Cumbo, So., OF, New York Tech
Preseason Pitcher of the Year: Timothy Panetta, Sr., Molloy