KU baseball begins season nationally ranked

KUTZTOWN, PA. (December 28, 2009) – The Kutztown University baseball team is ranked 25^th in the Collegiate Baseball preseason poll released Monday afternoon. The Golden Bears received 266 points.

The Golden Bears finished the 2009 season with a 34-17 overall record. Kutztown, who finished second in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division, advanced to the NCAA Division II Atlantic regional tournament. Kutztown returns several key veterans from last season’s team highlighted by first team all-PSAC Eastern Division selections Mike Kacelowicz (Orwigsburg/Blue Mountain) and Adam Maini (Macungie/Emmaus) and freshman of the year Shayne Houck (Barto/Boyertown).

Houck led Kutztown in batting with a .390 average. He was seventh in on-base percentage in the PSAC (.487). In addition, Houck also led the Golden Bears in hits (64), runs scored (52), home runs (seven), slugging percentage (.610). Meanwhile, Kacelowicz was second in batting average (.355), runs scored (39), hits (54) and slugging percentage (.526). He led the Golden Bears with 15 doubles.

Maini had the best earned run average (1.56) in the PSAC last season. He posted a 7-2 overall record and struck out 51 batters in 57.2 innings pitched. Maini was also sixth in opponents batting average (.215).

Second-team all-PSAC East selection James Quigley (Bensalem/Bensalem) also returns for the Golden Bears. In addition to batting .331 overall, Quigley drove in 32 runs, had 41 hits and scored 26 runs. Overall, Kutztown welcomes back five players who batted .300 or better last season. Matt Kulbacki (Hershey/Hershey) finished with a .324 batting average and Michael Dugan (Ocean City, NJ/Ocean City) compiled a .314 average.

Kutztown begins its season on Friday, February 5 at Barton College in a doubleheader. The Golden Bears play their home opener on Saturday, March 13 against East Stroudsburg.

--KU--