Tom Cote Collects Northeast-10 Pitcher Of The Week Honors

Carr named to Weekly Honor Roll; Ravens No. 21 in Ping!Baseball Rankings

Northeast-10 Conference Weekly Release
ECAC Weekly Release
NCBWA Division II National/Regional Polls
Ping!Baseball Division II Top 30 Rankings

RINDGE, N.H. (April 21, 2009) – Senior left-hander Tom Cote (Swanzey, N.H./Univ. of Massachusetts) of the Franklin Pierce University baseball team has been named Northeast-10 Conference Pitcher of the Week for the week ending on April 19. Cote was also named Pitcher of the Week by the Eastern College Athletic Conference. In addition, senior first baseman Steve Carr (Nahant, Mass./Lake City CC) been named to the Northeast-10 Conference Weekly Honor Roll. Also, Franklin Pierce (24-14) is 21st in the Ping!Baseball Division II Top 30 Rankings, received votes in this week’s National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division II Poll and is second in the NCBWA East Region Poll.

In a pair of starts last week, Cote tossed 16 scoreless innings and struck out 21 batters to post a 2-0 record and garner is first weekly conference award of the season. Against Assumption on April 14, he threw eight shutout innings, allowed four hits, walked one and struck out 11 to pick up the win. Against Saint Anselm on April 18, he again fired eight scoreless, gave up six hits, walked two and struck out 10. Over the two games, opponents hit just 10-for-59 (.169) off of Cote. It marks the sixth time this season a Franklin Pierce pitcher has collected Pitcher of the Week honors from the Northeast-10 and the second week in a row a Raven was both Northeast-10 and ECAC Pitcher of the Week.

Carr hit .450 (9-for-20) over six games last week in a 5-1 week for the Ravens. He knocked two doubles and a pair of home runs on the week, drove in six runs, scored six times, drew a pair of walks and stole two bases. Carr piled up an .850 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage over the six games.

In the seventh NCBWA Division II Poll of the season, the Ravens fall back out of the Top 25 and appear in the “others receiving votes” section of the poll. Franklin Pierce tallied 29 points, down from 38 a week ago and good for 27th nationally. Southern Arkansas (41-7) won all five of its games last week en route to tallying 10 of 13 first-place votes and 321 points to keep the No. 1 ranking for the second week in a row. The remaining first-place votes were split, with two going to No. 2 Mesa State (34-5) and one to No. 3 Emporia State (37-6). Dominican (25-9) represents the East Region in the poll as a newcomer at No. 21. Fellow Northeast-10 member Massachusetts Lowell (20-12) also appears in the “others receiving votes” section of the poll.

In the 11th Ping!Baseball Division II Top 30 Rankings of the season, Franklin Pierce hops up five spots to the 21st position. Southern Arkansas, currently riding a 20-game winning streak, occupies the top spot in the Ping!Baseball rankings as well. The Muleriders have occupied the penthouse of the rankings for 10 consecutive weeks. Franklin Pierce is the only East Region team to crack the Top 30.

The seventh NCBWA East Region Poll of the year sees the Ravens fall one spot to the second position. Franklin Pierce tallied 55 points and two of six first-place votes to fall behind Dominican, when tallied 56 points and three first-place votes to jump from fourth to first. Adelphi (18-7) is fourth and garnered the remaining first-place vote. After Franklin Pierce, four other Northeast-10 schools appear in the East Region Poll. Massachusetts Lowell dropped one spot to third and Assumption (23-13-1) moved up one spot to sixth, while Stonehill (20-14) and Bentley (21-18) remain eighth and ninth, respectively, for the second straight week.

The Ravens return to the field on Wednesday, April 22, when they return home to host New Haven in a Northeast-10 Conference contest. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field in Rindge.