Baseball's Vincent D'Ambrosio of Mahopac, N.Y., Collects All-ECAC Honors

2016 Jun 13

Vincent D'Ambrosio earned All-ECAC honors in the sport of baseball.

WPI senior Alex Venditti has earned another major award and was named All-ECAC along with classmates Vinny D'Ambrosio and John Mulready, as well as junior Mike Vaitkunas. Venditti adds ECAC Division III New England Player of the Year and first team honors to his haul. D'Ambrosio, Mulready and Vaitkunas, meanwhile, were named to the second team.

Venditti, a repeat first teamer, capped his collegiate career in style, leading the NEWMAC in most offensive categories to claim the conference's player of the year award. The infielder closed the regular season batting .430 with 13 home runs and 55 RBI to his credit, while also playing sound defense. The slick-fielding first-baseman was nearly perfect in the field, making just two errors to record a .993 fielding percentage. Venditti was recently named an ABCA/Rawlings DIII First Team All-American, in addition to receiving second-team honors from D3baseball.com. The two-time NEWMAC Co-Player of the Week in 2016 belted a pair of home runs in a single game against Worcester State, Babson and Becker and grand slams versus Wentworth, Coast Guard and Elms. He also went yard to lift the Engineers to a 4-2 victory in their semifinal series opener with Wheaton. Venditti enjoyed a 15-game hitting streak and had 18 multi-hit games.

D'Ambrosio batted .369 with 59 hits, including 12 doubles and two triples, 21 walks, 21 RBI, 46 runs scored and 16 stolen bases on 18 attempts in 40 games played. His runs and stolen base totals ranked first on the team and was one of three Boynton Hillers with a pair of triples. The NEWMAC Co-Player of the Week for his performance in Florida, registered 16 multi-hit games including a four against Coast Guard on April 16 and five against Springfield a week later. He also produced the walk off RBI single against the Bears on April 15. In the postseason, D'Ambrosio went 10-for-21 (.476) with three multi-hit games.

Mulready hit .412 with 54 hits, including a team-best 15 doubles to go with three home runs, 38 RBI, 20 runs scored and a .595 slugging percentage. He currently boasts a season-best 16-game hitting streak and has put together at least two in half of them, including three each against Becker and MIT, and a 4-for-4 day versus MIT in the ECAC title game. Overall he has a hit in 32 of 37 games played and 14 with two or more, which features a 4-for-4 performance in the opener versus Worcester State and the aforementioned finale versus MIT.

Vaitkunas paced the team with four complete games, a 2.62 ERA and 68 2/3 innings pitched. The local product won six games, struck out 33 and walked only 14 in 11 appearances. Vaitkunas held NEWMAC opponents to a .208 batting average compared to an overall average of .228. He went the distance twice against Wheaton, including the NEWMAC Championship semifinal series opening win.

Portions of Release Courtesy ECAC

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