2014 Ocean State Waves Preview

General manager Matt Finlayson call's Alec Sole
"one of the best shortstops in college baseball." /St. Louis

2014 was a great inaugural season for the Waves as they finished second in the Eastern Division in the regular season. However, they were upset by Mystic in the first round to end their season. It was an excellent first season- they fared much better then Plymouth or Saratoga, both also in their first year.

This season, the Waves look poised to knock Newport off their throne atop the Southern division with excellent pitching- both starters and relievers.

Projected Lineup
Alec Diamond, C
Robby Rinn, 1B
Tyler Walsh, 2B
Alec Sole, SS
John Mullen, 3B
Jordan Mountford, OF
Drew Ferguson, OF
Steve Wilgus, OF

This is a strong lineup, anchored by an influx of players from Rhode Island and Belmont. Bryant first basemen Robby Rinn is a player to watch as he hit .302 with 13 doubles this year. Saint Louis's Alec Sole is the player to watch on the defensive side of things as general manager Matt Finlayson calls him "one of the best shortstops in college baseball."

Projected Rotation
LHP Steve Moyers
RHP Nathan Bates
LHP Conor LeBlanc
LHP Hunter Schryver

Moyers is the ace of this rotation as he compiled a 2.30 ERA over 82 innings of work for Rhode Island this spring. His strength was his ability to avoid hard-hit balls and hits in general- his 5.49 hits allowed per nine innings was fourth in the country last season. After Moyers, Bates has been solid for Georgia State with 49 strikeouts over 60 innings.

Projected Bullpen
Closer(s)- RHP Jeffrey Paglione, RHP Oliver Powers
Setup Men- RHP Mark Lukowski, LHP Mike Castellani, RHP Robert Whaley
Middle Men- RHP Brad Applin, RHP David Gerber, RHP Luke Fernandes, RHP Eric Peterson, RHP Robert Plohr
Long Man- RHP Mitchell Jordan, RHP Patrick Peterson

Definitely the Waves strength, the bullpen features a combination of matchup pitchers and lights out relievers. Returning is Radford righthander Oliver Powers, who went 3-1 with six saves last year. He's joined by another dominant righty, Monmouth's Jeff Paglione. Paglione picked up five saves and had a 2.84 ERA over 19 appearances.

Outlook
If Ocean State can get a win going into the late innings, expect them to keep it. They have so much depth in the bullpen, something that is extremely valuable over the course of a 40-game season crammed into two months. The offense leaves something to be desired but they're not weak by any means.