Angelo Bruno

Michael White

Skyhawks duo among 91 student-athletes featured for Division II Player of the Year award

Tino Martinez Award Website

The list will be updated with a mid-season release mid-April. Semifinalists are scheduled to be announced on May 7^th with the finalists to be named on May 19^th. After the finalists are named fans will be once again be invited to vote online at tinoaward.com to help determine the winner. The winner will be announced after the conclusion of the NCAA Division II Baseball Championships held in Cary, N.C., from May 28^th to June 4^th.

Bryan Fogle of Erskine won the first edition of the award last season after batting .430 and leading DII with 28 home runs, 103 RBI (the second most in NCAA history) and 203 total bases. Fogle was drafted by Tampa Bay following the season and is currently in the Rays' minor league system. Runner-up Hayden Simpson of Southern Arkansas was a first round draft choice of the Chicago Cubs.

The Stonehill duo are two of eight Northeast-10 Conference student-athletes named to the watch list and the program is one of just three in the Conference with two players selected. They are also two of 12 athletes from the East Region to the list.

Bruno, named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA) preseason All-East Region team last week, was a consensus All-East Region selection in 2010, earning first team honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and second team accolades by the NCBWA and Daktronics. He started all 49 games for Stonehill last season and posted a .286 (53-for-185) batting average, with 32 runs scored, nine doubles, a triple, team-high ten home runs (2^nd NE-10) and 45 RBI (3^rd) to go with a team-best 11 stolen bases on 14 attempts. His ten home runs are the most by a Stonehill baseball player since the NE-10 adopted the use of wood bats in 2003. Bruno was also named a first team All-Northeast-10 selection before being named MVP of the NE-10 Championships. He also participated in the 36^th annual NEIBA All-Star Game at Fenway Park.

Bruno has started 122 of the 129 games he has played over his career at Stonehill. He has compiled 116 hits and a .261 batting average with 85 runs scored, 24 doubles, five triples, 15 home runs and 77 RBI with 16 stolen bases on 22 attempts.

White is coming off a breakout season in 2010 in which he emerged as one of the dominant lefthanders in the region. He earned third team All-Northeast-10 Conference honors at utility for Stonehill and was named to the NEIBA All-Star Game at Fenway Park, having starred for the Skyhawks on the mound, at the plate and in the outfield. He started 39 of the 42 games he played, seeing time in leftfield (28 starts), pitcher (8) and designated hitter (5), hitting .308 (36-for-117) with 12 runs scored, three doubles, a home run, 11 RBI and team-high matching 11 stolen bases on 14 attempts. He also made nine appearances (eight starts) on the mound and the lefthander was 6-2 (5^th NE-10 wins) with a 2.22 earned run average (12^th), 51 strikeouts and 14 walks over 69.0 innings pitched, limiting opposing batters to a mere .180 batting average (5^th). White was near flawless in the field, committing just one error in 92 chances (.989%).

White posted 11 multi-hit games and his nine game hitting streak was the second longest by a Stonehill player last season. He allowed a team-low 19.7-percent (14-71) of opposing leadoff hitters (2^nd) to reach base while averaging a team-best 7.67 innings per appearance (2^nd), yielding just 5.87 hits per nine innings with 1.85 walks and 6.65 strikeouts per nine. White turned it up in the postseason, winning both starts, with a complete game shutout, while posting a 0.53 ERA with 13 strikeouts and three walks over his 17 innings of work. He earned All-Tournament team honors at the NCAA East Regional after firing a two-hit shutout in the Skyhawks NCAA Tournament opener against the University of New Haven, striking out seven and walking just one. In Stonehill's late season 12-game winning streak, White made three starts and was 3-0 with a 0.74 ERA, 19 strikeouts and four walks over 24.1 innings.

White, a consensus All-East Region performer for the Stonehill men's soccer team this past fall, has played 58 games in his two seasons for the baseball team (48 starts) and is hitting .301 (46-153) with 13 runs scored, five doubles, a home run and 20 RBI with 13 steals. He has also made 16 career appearances (11 starts) on the mound, posting a 6-3 record and 3.06 ERA with 60 strikeouts and 25 walks in 88.1 innings pitched.

Stonehill, among teams receiving votes in the NCBWA Division II preseason poll, are ranked third in the NCBWA East Region rankings and picked fifth in the NE-10 preseason coaches' poll. The Skyhawks posted a 31-18 overall record in 2010, including a 17-9 clip in Northeast-10 play, and captured their third NE-10 Championship in program history. The team was 4-0 at the NE-10 tournament as it closed out the season winners of 13 of its last 15 games, including a 12-game winning streak. The Skyhawks earned the NE-10's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and were seeded fourth in the East Regional. They posted a 2-2 record in their second NCAA regional appearance in program history.

Stonehill is scheduled to open its 2011 season on Friday, February 25, at the Ripken Experience Northeast Challenge in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at 1 p.m. The Skyhawks first home games are a scheduled non-conference doubleheader with Post University on Friday, March 25, starting at 1 p.m.