Junior righthander Jim Duff will be one of three Skyhawks competing in the 2014 NEIBA All-Star Game this Sunday night in Lowell, Mass. |
Duff, Soulier and Rugel will represent the Skyhawks at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Mass. on Sunday night
EASTON, Mass. (May 27, 2014) – Three members of the Stonehill College baseball team have been selected to play in the 40th Annual New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association Joe Walsh All-Star Game. The contest will be held this Sunday, June 1st, at 7 p.m. at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Junior righthanders Jim Duff (Garden City, New York/Garden City) and Armand Rugel (Middletown, Rhode Island/Middletown) and senior southpaw Zack Soulier (Milford, Connecticut/Jonathan Law) will represent the Skyhawks in the annual All-Star Game that pits top Division I student-athletes from New England against a combined squad of Division II and Division III all-stars. The game, which has been held at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, and Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, Massachusetts in the past, will take place at LeLacheur Park this year. LeLacheur Park is the home of the Lowell Spinners, the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, as well as the University of Massachusetts Lowell baseball team.
Duff, a consensus All-East Region selection after earning first team honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and second team accolades from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and Daktronics, will cap off his breakout junior campaign in Lowell on Sunday night.
Senior lefty Zack Soulier also earned an invite to the NEIBA All-Star Game after leading the NE-10 with nine wins in 2014. |
The Northeast-10 All-Conference first team selection went 8-2 this season and posted a 1.84 earned run average, good for seventh in the league. He recorded 62 strikeouts and held opponents to a .221 batting average, while issuing just five walks over 83 innings of work. Duff registered three complete game efforts (one shutout), and earned victories in his first six starts of the season, including two against eventual East Region Champion and NCAA Division II College World Series participant Saint Thomas Aquinas College.
Soulier, a second team All-NE-10 and ABCA All-East Region selection, earns an invite to the NEIBA All-Star Game after going 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA in 2014. Soulier's nine victories led the NE-10, and the senior southpaw also became Stonehill's all-time wins leader with his 24th career triumph against Adelphi University in the NE-10 Tournament on May 9th.
Rugel |
Rugel, who was also named to the ABCA All-East Region and All-NE-10 second teams, was one of the top closers in the NE-10 this season. The junior registered a career-best 13 saves, good for second in the conference, while posting a 1.16 ERA. Rugel pitched more than one inning in 12 of his 23 appearances, and he recorded four saves that took at least two frames of work. He held opponents to a .177 average in 38.2 innings on the hill, and his 37 punchouts ranked third on the team.
Stonehill will be represented at the NEIBA All-Star Game for the seventh time in the past ten seasons. Former pitcher/utility player Michael White, '12, appeared in three consecutive contests from 2010-12, while pitcher Billy Sittig, '06, earned three selections (2003, 2005-06) as well. Stonehill's three representatives this season tied Southern New Hampshire University and Franklin Pierce University for the most in the NE-10.
Stonehill (30-20, 17-10 NE-10) finished third in the NE-10 Northeast Division after going 13-8 in divisional play during the 2014 regular season. The Skyhawks reached the 30-win mark for the fourth time in five years, and earned a berth in the NE-10 Championship for the 13th time in head coach Pat Boen's 17-year tenure.
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