PSAC release

EAST STROUDSBURG – Senior left-hander Christian Saveri was named Pitcher of the Year and John Kochmansky earned Coach of the Year honors to give East Stroudsburg University two of the four major awards on the All-PSAC East Baseball team, which was announced Tuesday.

The awards for the circuit's top pitcher and coach are the first for the Warriors since 1985, when Mike Balent (pitcher) and Glen Hayes (coach) were recognized. Saveri and Balent are the school's only two Pitcher of the Year recipients, and Kochmansky joins Hayes and Vern Walsh (1971) as ESU skippers to take top honors.

Kochmansky, in his third season as head coach after a three-year stint as an assistant, led the Warriors (26-20) to the PSAC playoffs with a late season run that featured a school record 11-game winning streak. The squad posted a 9-3 record in the final three conference series to rally from a 2-10 start, which included 10 games on the road. Kochmansky has guided ESU to a school record 32 wins in 2009 and the fourth-ever trip to the PSAC tournament in 2010 in his first three seasons.

Saveri (Bethlehem/Bethlehem Catholic), a second team reliever last season, was recognized by the PSAC East coaches after leading the entire conference with 42.2 innings pitched against divisional opponents. He went at least 5.2 innings in all six starts, including three complete games, and had two saves vs. PSAC East foes. He finished the season with a 3.37 ERA, struck out 65 and walked 14 in 69.1 innings.

Freshman P/1B Brian Ernst (Allentown/Salisbury) also earned mention as the second team utility player and is the first ESU freshman to garner All-PSAC recognition since Danny Woodlein in 1983.

Ernst set school freshman records with six home runs and 13 doubles, hit .305 and had a team-high 32 RBI while playing in 45 of the Warriors' 46 games. He also had a .408 on-base percentage and drew a team-high 22 walks while striking out just 14 times in 141 at bats.

On the mound, the right-hander supplemented Saveri at the top of the rotation and won his final three conference starts. He had complete game wins against Millersville and Mansfield and earned his first career save in a 5-4 win to close the regular season and give ESU its spot in the PSAC playoffs. Ernst led the Warriors with a 5-3 record on the mound, made nine starts and struck out 49 batters in 51.0 innings.

The play of Ernst and a freshman class that also included pitcher Colin Kelly, catcher Nico Delerme and outfielders Eric Boyer and Evan Cain was critical on a team that returned just 10 letterwinners from last season.

The Warriors' 15-3 run to finish the regular season began with a 3-1 weekend against Shippensburg on April 9-10. They swept Millersville 4-0 the following weekend and split with Mansfield, led by Ernst's complete game win in game 1 and save in game 4, to earn their trip to the postseason on the final day of conference action.

Saveri's effort as ESU's workhorse did not go unnoticed despite a 4-5 record in 13 appearances, as the Warriors scored more than three runs in just two of his 10 starts. He is the first ESU pitcher to be named first team All-PSAC East since Mike Boebert in 1993.

He was a three-time PSAC East Pitcher of the Week, earning two of the first three awards after opening the year with 6.1 no-hit innings against UMass-Lowell and shutting out Chestnut Hill for seven innings in a 1-0 victory before getting into the conference schedule.

He threw a complete game five-hitter in a 3-1 win at PSAC East regular season champion West Chester on March 28, the only pitcher to hold the Golden Rams under three runs in 48 games this year. The next weekend at Bloomsburg, he got the final four outs in a 5-3 win before losing his start the next day, 3-1, despite a season-high 10 strikeouts in 6.1 innings.

Saveri stepped up again against Shippensburg to earn PSAC East Pitcher of the Week honors. He recorded a five-out save in a 5-4 win on the road on Friday, then beat the Raiders 3-1 on Saturday as he allowed 10 hits but stranded 13 runners on base in the complete game victory.

His final two starts were nearly as good. He was one of four Warriors to throw complete games in the sweep of Millersville, winning the second game of the series 5-1 while allowing just an unearned run in the first. In the final weekend of the regular season against Mansfield, he faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings before the Mounties rallied for a 6-5 win, but the Warriors came back to earn their playoff spot in the final game of the series.

Saveri set the school record with his 65th career appearance when he started against IUP in the first round of the PSAC tournament last Wednesday. He is also the single-season record holder with 22 appearances as a junior, which included two starts and 12 relief appearances in 24 PSAC East games.

He ranks second in school history with nine career saves, sixth with 161 strikeouts and tied for eighth with 14 wins. His 3.94 career ERA is the fourth-lowest by an ESU pitcher since 1985, and he had a 3.32 ERA, 122 strikeouts and 23 walks in 119.1 innings over the last two years.

PSAC East Awards
Player of the Year - Shayne Houck, Kutztown
Pitcher of the Year - Christian Saveri, ESU
Freshman of the Year - Fred Breidenbach, West Chester
Coach of the Year - John Kochmansky, ESU