KUTZTOWN, PA (February 16, 2011) – The Kutztown University baseball team returns to a tournament where it has enjoyed a great deal of success over the years as it will compete in the 2011 Builder Invitational hosted by the Apprentice School. OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT PAGE
The Golden Bears take their annual trip to Hampton, VA having won the tournament six consecutive years and nine of the last 13 years. The past two seasons KU has swept all five of its games and have not lost at the Builder Invitational dating back to an 11-10 loss to the Apprentice School on February 23, 2008.
This year's tournament includes Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) schools Bloomsburg University and Lock Haven University, as well as Briarcliffe College (N.Y.) and the Apprentice School.
KU will begin its weekend of games on Thursday as it will face Lock Haven at 6:00 p.m. and the Apprentice School on Friday beginning at noon. The Golden Bears then have a pair of Saturday games as they go up against Briarcliffe at 9:00 a.m. and Bloomsburg at 6:00 p.m. A seeding will then take place based upon teams' results from the four games to decide matchups for Sunday's games including the championship game set to begin at 3:00 p.m.
Live stats for this weekend's games can be found by CLICKING HERE.
The Golden Bears and the Huskies of Bloomsburg met in last year's championship as KU won in a tight 11-10 game. Mike Kacelowicz (Orwigsburg, PA/Blue Mountain) led KU, going 2-for-5 including three RBI.
The Builder Invitational was KU's first games of the season last year due to inclement weather cancelling its trip down to Barton. Kutztown (1-2) is coming off an 11-day layoff since it played a three game set at Barton College, where it saw two of its games go into extra innings.
“It is a definite advantage to have already played three games,” said head baseball coach Chris Blum. “Our hitters have seen live pitching, our pitchers have been off the mound, and our young players got some of the butterflies out of their system.”
KU heads into tournament play with a bevy of national and regional rankings. KU is ranked fifth by PING Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and ninth by Collegiate Baseball. It is also ranked first in the Atlantic Region preseason poll by the NCBWA.
Kutztown saw some great things out of its players during its trip to Barton. Junior infielder Cody Montz (Schuylkill Haven, PA/Schuylkill Haven) currently leads the team with a .625 average and Corey Buletza (St. Clair, PA/Pottsville) holds a .471 average while knocking in a team-leading seven RBI's.
Senior James Quigley (Bensalem, PA/Bensalem) hit Kutztown's first homerun of the year, hitting a three-run bomb over the right field fence in KU's 17-4 victory in its second game against Barton.
Pitchers Jonathan Grosse (Bayport, NY/Bayport-Bluepoint) and Tyler Persun (Mount Joy, PA/Donegal) both saw action in the team's opening games. Grosse threw 81 pitches in the season opener and allowed just two hits in 5.1 innings while striking out seven.
Persun earned Kutztown's first win of the year, allowing just two runs over four innings.
“I always expect the team to go out and play to the best of their ability,” said Blum. “We have had a lot of success in the past at this tourney, but we also need to play better than we did last weekend in Barton. We have two conference teams down there and we will need to play well in order to come away with some wins.”
Following the Builder Invitational, the Golden Bears will have off until its plays in their series of games during spring break in Savannah, GA beginning on Saturday March 5.
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