After losing the NJCAA Division III Region 15 Championship to Monroe College last season, Suffolk’s baseball head coach Jason Galbraith said the team is looking forward to bringing home the title in 2023. 

“The team looks better than last year,” Galbraith said, with “some very good arms at the top of our rotation and some very potent hitters with a very sound defense behind the dish.”

The Sharks last won an NJCAA Division III Region 15 Championship in 2019 and have 14 championships in total.

The team has two returning players: center fielder Pete Montana and first baseman Alex Knopf, the Sharks’ third and fourth hitters, respectively. Last season, Montana had 3 home runs and 40 RBIs and Knopf had 5 home runs and 35 RBIs. 

“We will be counting a few freshmen to start but are coming in ready to play at a college level and will have a very high impact,” Galbraith said in an email.

Those freshmen include AJ Walker, an outfielder and right-handed pitcher, Jack Turner, another right-hand pitcher, Dom LaFroscia, a left-handed pitcher “who also can swing it well,” Galbraith said. 

In the off-season, Suffolk hired a new pitching coach, Fabion Finol. He joins assistant coaches Tommy Boyce and Reid Gorecki in the clubhouse. Galbraith said Finol will be “a big addition” to the team.

Fans optimistic the Sharks will grab a 15th championship

“I went to a few games last year, but this year I am very excited to see if we can win it all because I think we have a better team now than last year,” said fan Jakob Smith, 20, a liberal arts major at Suffolk, “so let’s hope everyone stays healthy and we got this.”

Bobby Miller, 21, another liberal arts major, added: “My prediction is that the team is going to win the whole thing and Suffolk wins the Region 15 Championship because we have the players to win it all and with the record we had last year this team is going to be 10 times better than the 2022 season.” 

Suffolk will start the season against Westchester Community College at the Ammerman campus on March 1. On March 4, the team has back-to-back games, first playing Massasoit Community College at Taunton High School at 12 p.m., then at 3 p.m. And on March 5 the team plays Northern Essex Community College at Trinity Stadium at 12 p.m. and then again at 3 p.m.

Check out the full schedule. 

Galbraith said the keys for the season are to “stay healthy and develop less seasoned pitchers early in the season so we have depth going into the regional championship.”