Baseball Puts Pair On Northeast-10 Conference Weekly Honor Roll

Adams, Dowd honored by conference; Ravens top East Region Poll

Northeast-10 Conference Weekly Release
Collegiate Baseball Poll
NCBWA Nationall/Regional Polls
Ping!Baseball Division II Top 30

RINDGE, N.H. (March 18, 2009) – Senior right-hander Mike Adams (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) and freshman catcher Mike Dowd (East Bridgewater, Mass./Cardinal Spellman) of the Franklin Pierce University baseball team have been named to the Northeast-10 Conference Weekly Honor Roll for the week ending on March 15, as announced Wednesday by the conference office. In addition, Franklin Pierce (6-7) received votes in this week’s Collegiate Baseball Poll, is ranked No. 22 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division II Poll, is ranked No. 29 in the Ping!Baseball Top 30 Rankings and sits atop NCBWA East Region Poll.

Adams threw 6.2 innings without allowing an earned run in his only appearance of the week. In the first game of a doubleheader against Dominican, Adams allowed just one unearned run on two hits, walked three and recorded a career-best 13 strikeouts, but was saddled with the loss, as the Ravens were shutout, 1-0.

Dowd piled up eight hits and drove in six runs last week. In a win over Caldwell, he went 2-for-4 with a double and drove in a pair of runs. In a win in the first game of a doubleheader at St. Thomas, Dowd hit 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles, a home run, three RBI and two runs scored. In the second game at St. Thomas, he hit 3-for-4 with a double and a walk and drove in a run in a losing effort.

The sixth Collegiate Baseball Poll of the season sees the Ravens fall from No. 10 to the “Also Receiving Votes” section of the poll after a 2-4 week. Franklin Pierce collected just 12 points in this week’s poll, down from 346 a week ago. Southern Arkansas (20-6) took two out of three at Harding and took a single game from Drury at home to collect 478 points and slide up one spot to the No. 1 position in the poll. Previous No. 1, California State, Stanislaus (16-7), tumbled all the way into a tie for No. 26 after getting swept in a four-game series at California, San Diego. No East Region school placed among the 30 nationally ranked teams.

In the second NCBWA Division II Poll of the season, the Ravens jump into the rankings at No. 22 with 56 total points. Grand Valley State (16-2) went 6-0 last week to collect 316 points and slide up two spots to the No. 1 ranking. Southern Arkansas, the previous No. 1 slipped to the No. 2 position. Franklin Pierce is the only East Region team to crack the NCBWA’s 25-team poll. Fellow Northeast-10 Conference member Massachusetts Lowell (4-3) appears in the “others receiving votes” section of the poll with 32 points.

In the sixth Ping!Baseball Division II Top 30 Rankings of the season, Franklin Pierce dropped 17 spots to the No. 29 position. Southern Arkansas remains No. 1 in the rankings for the fifth consecutive week. The Ravens are the only East Region team in the Top 30 Rankings.

The second NCBWA East Region Poll of the year sees the Ravens remain in the top spot for the second week in a row. However, after doubleheader splits with both Dominican and Molloy last week, Massachusetts Lowell has moved from second into a first place tie with Franklin Pierce, as both squads received 47 points. In all, the Northeast-10 put five teams among the 10 featured in the East Region Poll. Stonehill (5-4) sits alone in fourth after being tied for the position a week ago, Pace (4-8-1) is sixth for the second week in a row and Southern Connecticut State (5-4) falls from a tie for eighth into the ninth position.

The Ravens return to the field on Thursday, March 19, when they face St. Thomas Aquinas in a neutral-site, non-conference doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m. at McCusker Sportsplex in Boca Raton, Fla. Franklin Pierce’s first home game is scheduled for Thursday, March 26 against Southern New Hampshire at 3 p.m.