Baseball's Joe DiRocco Named NJCBA Pitcher of the Year

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Seton Hall baseball's right-handed pitcher Joe DiRocco (East Hanover, N.J.) was named the 2011 New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association Pitcher of the Year.  The announcement was made the NJCBA on Wednesday, May 18.

DiRocco becomes the third Pirate pitcher since 2008 to win the award following Corey Young (2008) and Keith Cantwell (2009).

In addition to DiRocco, Giuseppe Papaccio (Nutley, N.J.), Zack Granite (Staten Island, N.Y.), and Ryan Harvey (Manalapan, N.J.) were named to the NJCBA First Team.  Sean Gusrang (Burlington, N.J.), Mike Genovese (Livingston, N.J.), and Jon Prosinski (Skillman, N.J.) received Second Team honors, and Dillon Hamlin (Colts Neck, N.J.) and Brian Gilbert (Toms River, N.J.) were named to the All-Rookie Team.  A.J. Rusbarsky (Freehold, N.J.) was named as a Distinguished Senior.

In 2011, DiRocco is 6-1, with a 1.45 ERA with 66 strikeouts in 90.2 innings of work.  He began his season with a two-hit eight inning shutout against Iowa in the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge pitching the Pirates to their first win of the season.  The outing earned the senior a place on the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge All-Tournament Team, and the InsidePitching.com Northeast Regional Performance of the Week.  It also gave him his first of three BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week awards, which was the most awarded to a pitcher in one season since 2003.

One week removed from the Iowa performance, the four-year weekend starter threw 6.1 innings yielding only one run on four hits while striking out four to defeat then-number 24 North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  He was later named to his second conference Pitcher of the Week award for the outing.

In conference play, DiRocco is 3-1 with a 1.57 ERA in eight appearances.  He has struck out 44 batters in 57.1 innings and has allowed 13 runs, 10 earned, in that span.  Of his no-decisions, he struck out six and allowed only one hit before being removed after nine scoreless innings of an 18-inning marathon against Louisville on May 5.  The Pirates won the game, 1-0.

Papaccio makes his first appearance on the All-NJCBA First Team after earning a place on the All-Rookie team in 2010.  Playing the majority of his games at third base this season, the sophomore has started 43 of his 45 appearances batting .270 with six doubles, one triple, and two home runs.  Of his two home runs, none were bigger than his game-winning grand-slam in the top of the 10^th inning at Florida Atlantic.  The home run capped the comeback for the Pirates giving them an, 8-4, win and their first series victory in 2011.

Freshman Zack Granite made a name for himself as he has started every Seton Hall game in center field this season.  He is tied with Gusrang as the team leader with a .301 batting average and stands one multi-hit game shy of team leader Gusrang with 17.  Spending most of the season as the team's lead-off hitter, the lefty has collected a team high 59 hits while drawing another team-high 25 walks.  He also leads the team with 38 runs scored.

Harvey earned his First Team honor by appearing in 21 games out of the bullpen, posting a 4-2 record and an ERA of 2.80.  He leads the Pirates with four saves as he has struck out 62 batters in 35.1 innings of work.  The sophomore right-hander has also played a role in two of the team's five shutouts this season including picking up the win in the 18-inning game against Louisville where he struck out 10 batters and surrendered only one hit in five innings of work.

Gusrang picks up his first honor on the NJCBA Team in four years, after having his best season as a Pirate in 2011.  He has started 47 of the 48 appearances, with majority of them coming at first base, and leads the teams with a .301 batting average along with 18 multi-hit games, 29 RBI, and three triples.  In addition, the senior from Burlington, N.J. is second on the team with 56 hits and three home runs.

Genovese earns his second nod on the All-NJCBA Second Team, but first as a position player after being named to the same team as a pitcher in 2010.  The sophomore has made 41 starts at second base this season batting .293 with three doubles, 24 RBI, and 18 runs scored.  Upon being inserted into the lineup for the first time in two years on March 5, the Livingston native led the team going 3-for-4 with an RBI and stolen base and never looked back.  The game propelled him to begin a 12-game hitting streak, which remains a team-high in 2011.  His biggest hit, though, came in the bottom of the 18^th inning against Louisville when he drove a pitch up the middle past a drawn-in infield for a walk-off, 1-0, win.

Similar to Genovese, Prosinski makes his second appearance on the All-NJCBA Second Team posting a 5-4 record with a 2.14 ERA.  He stands behind only DiRocco in wins, ERA, innings pitched, and earned runs allowed.  In BIG EAST play, however, Prosinski leads the Pirates with a 1.12 ERA and a 5-2 record.  In his last 46 innings pitched, the right-handed sophomore has surrendered only four earned runs, including a run in the eighth inning at Cincinnati that broke a string of 22.2 scoreless innings.

Hamlin receives the honor of being named to the All-Rookie squad for the 2011 season.  The catcher from Colts Neck has made 11 starts behind the plate collecting eight hits, including four doubles, driving in five runs, and scoring four.  On defense, he has thrown out four attempted base stealers, three of them in conference play.

Gilbert rounds out the Pirates on the NJCBA team by also being named to the All-Rookie team.  The right-handed pitcher out of Toms River has posted a 1-3 record with a 3.33 ERA in his 14 appearances.  He has recorded five starts in his freshman campaign including four in BIG EAST Conference weekends where he is third on the team behind Prosinski and DiRocco with a 3.71 ERA.  His best outings came against top conference opponents when he allowed only three runs in 7.2 innings at Notre Dame and again only three runs in six innings of work against Louisville.  He finished the weekends with a 1-1 record.  Entering the final weekend of play, Gilbert is tied for third in the conference in hits allowed and seventh in earned runs allowed.

Distinguished Senior A.J. Rusbarsky enters his final season as a Pirate and will go down as one of the better defenders to ever wear the uniform.  During his four years at Seton Hall, the Freehold native has appeared in 202 of the team's 203 games, including 201 starts at the shortstop position.  Defensively, Rusbarsky has contributed with at least 160 assists in each of the four years.  In his junior campaign, he set a single-season record with 196 assists en route to breaking the career-record of assists set by Mike Moriarty in 1995.  That same season saw Rusbarsky's bat produce 21 doubles tying him for fourth all-time in the single-season record books with former major leaguer John Valentin.  This season, he has anchored the shortstop position for 48 or the team's 49 games batting .237 with 11 doubles and one triple while adding 163 assists to his record total.

2011 NJCBA AWARD WINNERS

Player of the Year
Ryan Terry, Monmouth

Pitcher of the Year
Joe DiRocco, Seton Hall

Rookie Player of the Year
Nick Crescenzo, Rider

Rookie Pitcher of the Year
Andrew McGee, Monmouth

Fireman of the Year
Tyler Smith, Rider

Coach of the Year
Dean Ehehalt, Monmouth

All-NJCBA First Team
SP - Tyler Gebler, Rutgers
SP - Mike Thomas, Rider
SP - Nick Meyers, Monmouth
RP - Ryan Harvey, Seton Hall
C - Sam Mulroy, Princeton
1B - Mason Heyne, Rider
2B - AJ Albee, Rider
3B - Giuseppe Papaccio, Seton Hall
SS - Matt Tomczyk, NJIT
OF - Michael Lang, Rutgers
OF - Brandon Cotten, Rider
OF - Zack Granite, Seton Hall
DH - Nick Pulsonetti, Monmouth
UTL - DJ Roche, NJIT

All-NJCBA Second Team
SP - Jon Prosinski, Seton Hall
SP - Zak Hermans, Princeton
SP - Dan Smith, Monmouth
SP - Tripp Davis, NJIT
RP - Rob Corsi, Rutgers
C - Russell Stupienski
1B - Sean Gusrang, Seton Hall
2B - Mike Genovese, Seton Hall
3B - D.J. Anderson, Rutgers
SS - Ryan Kresky, FDU
OF - Brian Dillon, FDU
OF - Preston Aldridge, Saint Peter's
OF - Ed Martin, Monmouth
DH - Steve Galella, Rider
UTL - Mike Eliasen, FDU

All-NJCBA All-Rookie Team
Kevin Croucher, Saint Peter's
Nick Favatella, Rutgers
Mike Ford, Princeton
Brian Gilbert, Seton Hall
A.J. Goetz, Princeton
Jake Gronsky, Monmouth
Jon Guide, Monmouth
Dillon Hamlin, Seton Hall
Zack Hopf, Saint Peter's
Pat Sweeney, Rutgers
Matt Weckerle, NJIT
Jonathan York, Princeton