Johns Hopkins has been at the D-III College World Series every year it has been held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. d3photography.com photo by Steve Frommell

By Mark Fraenkel for D3baseball.com

While Johns Hopkins seems like the team to watch in Region 5, don’t be fooled as Keystone, York (Pa.), Marymount, Lebanon Valley, Scranton, Wilson, and Alvernia are all teams to watch. Over in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins finished its 2021 season in Cedar Rapids and ended the season ranked 10th in the final Nation D3Baseball.com Top 25 poll.

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After winning the CSAC, Keystone received votes in the final Top 25. The Giants will travel to Charlotte, N.C. for games against Washington & Lee, Marietta, and Christopher Newport on the weekend of February 25th. Marymount won the Atlantic East in 2021 and are once again a team to watch in the 2022 campaign under interim head coach Mike Cassidy. York (Pa.) will travel to Camden, N.J. on March 1st to begin their new season. Over in Annville, Pa., Lebanon Valley enters the 2022 season following a loss to York in the MACC Championship. Jonas Fester’s team begins the season on the road against Shenadoah on February 26th. After winning the Landmark a year ago, Scranton is expected to have a strong 2022 campaign but expect Catholic to also contend in the conference. After a loss in the CSAC Championship in 2021, John Poss’s Wilson team is a team to watch in the 2022 campaign. Finally, Alvernia lost in the MACC Semifinals one year ago. Yogi Lutz’s team will be one to watch out for when they begin their 2022 season on the road.

New Faces

Jim Carone comes to McDaniel from Wagner where he won 200 games as head coach of the Seahawks. Wagner athletics photo

Seven programs in Region 5 will have new head coaches in the 2022 season.

• Cairn hired Brett Marks as their next head coach. In addition to his experience with the Miami Marlins Foundation in their RBI program, Marks was a player, graduate assistant, and assistant coach within the Cairn program.
• Clark Summit selected Jeremy Hefele to lead their program. The Deleware Valley alum previously coached for 3 seasons at Carin, where he most recently served as interim head coach.
• Drew hired Brian Eberly as the head coach for the 2022 season. Eberly formerly served as head coach at County College of Morris. The Lock Haven University alum has also served as an associate scout for the Atlanta Braves, coached in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, and at Roxbury High School.
• Immaculata hired former Penn State-Abington head coach Josh Copskey. The Siena College alum was also an assistant at Rider University and Rutgers-Camden. Copskey also has coaching experience with the Brooklawn American Legion team.
• After Frank Leoni left Marymount for Division I Mount St. Mary’s University, Mike Cassidy was named interim head coach. Cassidy was a high school head coach in Virginia and was an assistant at his alma mater Averett University before serving as an assistant for seven seasons at Marymount. He also has served as both a head coach and assistant coach for the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks of the Futures Collegiate League.
• McDaniel named Jim Carone head coach. Carone previously was the head coach at Division I Wagner College for 10 years, where he won 200 games. He previously served as an assistant coach at Villanova, Rider, Wagner, Stevens, and New Jersey Institute of Technology.
• Phill Shallenberger is now the head coach at Messiah. Shallenbrger comes to Mechanicsburg after spending 4 years as the head coach at Cairn. The Geneva College alum also served as an assistant at Geneva College, Cairn University, and Division I Belmont University.
• Ross Trachtenberg will be Rosemont’s head coach for their inaugural campaign. In addition to his collegiate experience with West Chester University, Pomona-Pitzer, and Neumann, Trachtenberg has also served as a scout in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization for about ten years and was a high school coach in Pennsylvania.

Key Games

The Region 5 schedule is packed with high quality games throughout the schedule. On February 25th, Bob Babb will coach his Blue Jays against Cortland and then face MIT (23-19-1 in 2019) and North Carolina Wesleyan (ranked 24th in the final 2021 Top 25) later that weekend. In Scranton, Lebanon Valley and Scranton will play on February 27th. On Wednesday March 2nd, Penn State-Harrisburg and Johns Hopkins face off in Baltimore. Lebanon Valley vs. Marietta on March 6th in Port Charlotte, Fla. will be a great early test for Flying Dutchman. Keystone and Marymount will compete in Auburndale, Fla. on March 10th. Lebanon Valley’s matchup with Babson on March 12th in Port Charlotte, Fla. is another tough part of their non-conference schedule. Keystone and Wilson on March 19 will play a doubleheader. York (Pa.) travels to Rowan on March 22nd. Keystone plays William Paterson on March 24th for another tough test. Keystone will then play Scranton on April 7th.  Twelve days later, Scranton faces William Paterson in a tough Tuesday matchup at Volpe Field. The final game to watch in Region 5 is a doubleheader between Lebanon Valley and Alvernia on April 23rd.

Conference Previews

Marymount has won 20 or more games in four of the last five full season. Marymount athletics photo

Atlantic East Conference: Marymount is the team to watch in the AEC as we have watched them slowly evolve into the dominant team in the conference. Under former coach Frank Leoni Marymount went 20-7 and won the Atlantic East. With the The Saints were eliminated by Salisbury and Washington & Jefferson in the High Point, N.C. Regional. New head coach Mike Cassidy hopes to continue the standard of excellence at Marymount. Immaculata (20-7) took a different tack with a breakout season in 2021. They also have a change in their head coach but they bring in Josh Copskey who brought the Penn State-Abington program on the verge of national prominence.

Cabrini (16-11) head coach Nick Weisheipl returns a deep and talented squad after going 13-5 in conference play. The Blue and White will lean on graduate student Steven Priest, senior Mack McKisson and junior Gilbert Peralta, who established themselves as of the region's best players in 2021. The rest of the conference finished sub-.500. Gwynedd Mercy (5-16) was the top competition for Keystone when they were in the CSAC and after a down year, the Griffins are poised to join the top of the conference. They have a young squad and if they playing hard and figure out ways to win on a consistent basis, we could be trumpeting the return of Gwynedd Mercy.

FAVORITE: Marymount

Centennial Conference: In the Centennial, Johns Hopkins remains a conference and national powerhouse. The Blue Jays went 15-6 last season. Winning the Centennial, Bob Babb’s team was eliminated by Washington University and Adrian in Cedar Rapids. Hoping to return to Cedar Rapids, senior AJ King, senior Jared deFaria, senior James Ingram, junior Isaiah Winikur, junior Peter Schaefer, junior Kieren Collins, junior Jack McRae, grad student Jonah Offman, and senior Ben Keever all return to Baltimore. Hopkins also added some new faces to their 2022 roster. Grad transfer from Wooster Noah Clement, grad transfer from Skidmore Sam Browning, transfer from Division I Delaware Matthew Cooper, two-way freshman Jake Siani, freshman pitcher Matthew Savedoff, and freshman infielder Shawn Steuerer are all new additions to the team.

FAVORITE: Johns Hopkins

Vince Montone is the sole CSAC rep on the 2022 D3baseball.com preseason All-American team. He earned a spot as the second-team designated hitter. Keystone athletics photo

Colonial States Athletic Conference: Keystone went 22-6 and won the CSAC a year ago. Eliminated by Tufts and United States Merchant Marine Academy in the Auburn, NY Regional, Keystone.  Jamie Shevchik’s team is looking to repeat in the CSAC as they had for sixteen years. The Giants will open their season in Kannapolis, N.C. where they will play D-III powerhouse teams in No. 3 Marietta and Christopher Newport. They are just two of the eight teams on the Keystone schedule that got votes in the preseason polls. Tops with the bat will be Vince Montone. Given a chance to play everyday, he hit .443 with four home runs, 32 RBI, 11 doubles, 38 runs, a .509 OBP and a .701 slugging percentage on the season.

But Wilson seems like a real threat to Keystone. After going 21-6 and losing to Keystone in the CSAC Championship last year. K.J Curry, Brandon Cook, Dean Mercer (who missed half of last season with an injury), Michael Marrale, Gerald Buchanan, Juan Rosario, Dylan Procopio, Cam Nolet, and Dereck Ivey return to Chambersburg, P.A. this year. While All-Conference first baseman Peyton Mason transferred to Shepherd University and 1st Team All-Conference right handed pitcher Kevin Ehrman is no longer on the roster. John Poss did add left handed pitcher Chris Baumann, right handed pitcher Michael Hippchen, right handed pitcher Adrian Lugo,  and sophomore outfielder and Fairmont State transfer Haden Hoff.

Cairn (11-9) and Centenary (7-10) were .500 or better in the conference but were well behind the top two. With the conference changes Region 5 over the last few years, the minimum number of teams for an auto bid has been maintained with We have a young, but talented team going into our inaugural season at Rosemont College. There is depth at all positions and players eager to start their college baseball careers. (5-9) now in their third year as a program and new member Rosemont (did not play). Rosemont will have youth on their side as they open CSAC play this year. Head Coach Ross Trachtenberg has some talent and depth in the inaugural squad with 31 freshmen and four transfers to add some experience. The Ravens might not win the CSAC today against the established teams but look for them rise over the years.

FAVORITE: Keystone

Landmark Conference: Scranton looks to win the Landmark again in 2022. Catcher Anthony Lambroia is the only piece from the 20-11 (16-8) 2021 roster that will not return in 2022. Scranton returns Tyler Kirsten, Connor Harding, Kevin Johnson, Jake Lisicky, Justin Pinckert, Corey Zientek, Dan Crossan, Daniel Johnson, Hunter Ralston, Josh Lydon, James Gadue, Thomas Plunkett, Ryan Heiser, George Sengos, and Mike Fox.

Led by Houston native junior right-handed pitcher Tucker Alch, Catholic (16-11) is another strong team in the Landmark. Elizabethtown went 17-11 in a conference-only regular season in 2021. With star graduate student outfielder Andrew Fisher returning for the 2022 season, Adam Sheibley's team will face a challenging schedule with the hopes of playing into the post-season. All-Conference 1st Team sophomore starting pitcher David Ciaccio will return to Paul Engelhardt's Moravian (13-17,) pitching staff for the 2022 season. After struggling in the 2021 season, Drew (0-18) looks to bounce back in 2022. With 20 new players on the roster, Brian Eberly's team will start the 2022 season will begin the new campaign by playing on the road in Union, New Jersey against Kean.

FAVORITE: Scranton

York had less than ten losses for the first time in a decade and are looking to establish a long run at the top of the MACC. York (Pa.) athletics photo

Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth: In the MACC, York (Pa.) (23-3) looks to repeat in 2022. Mike Scappa loses some key pieces to his roster, however. Jack Barry is back for a bonus year. The York first baseman hit .404 with 19 home runs and 53 RBIs. With an all senior infield (Austin Denlinger, Joe Capobiano, and Craig Wiley), York will be a very capable offensive squad that will be a plus defensive team.  The loss of starter Brandon Haggerty and closer Conor Miller to graduation will be an area of concern but Scappa will have to break in a group of young and talented pitchers that have a chance to be a solid staff.

Lebanon Valley seems like a team that can make a deep run as well. Playing 21-12 baseball, the Flying Dutchmen lost to York (Pa.) in the MACC Championship. Mike Bulgia, Conor Smith, Nico Santoro, Ryan Murphy, Kyle Kingsbury, Tanner Rock, Tommy Moore, Hunter Tipton all return. In addition, three freshmen hope to make an immediate impact for Jonas Fester's ball club. First baseman Logan Brewer, catcher Jace Fetterman, pitcher and football player Jacob Horton, and pitcher Andrew Spaan are all solid freshmen on the roster. However, Lebanon Valley did lose some key pieces from a season ago.

All-Conference third baseman Chris DeClerico, first baseman Mike Leri, and right fielder Bryan Towers all graduated. Alvernia lost to Lebanon Valley in the MACC semifinal a year ago. The Golden Wolves return Justin Ayala, Connor Barthmaier, Ethan Brown, Jacob Buser, Billy Coleman, Billy Dougar, Thomas Faggioni, Mike Farinaccio, Lucas Flloyd, Joe Ginder, Luca Grammatica, Jason Kelly, Jason Lind, Christian McElroy, Kyler Newton, Nike Nutile, Mike Ramundo, Brandon Smith, Shane Ostrowsky, and Jake Reese. Yogi Lutz also added some quality players to his roster in Zach Rogacki, Conor Friedel, Josh Kreider, Josh Gilkey, David Linsalata, Brody DeGroodt, and Matt Edwards. Alvernia does lose d3.baseball.com All-American Mike Cirilli and ABCA All-Region pitcher Michael Simmerman from a season ago.

Hood's (11-21) roster is on the younger side this season. Coach Michael Impellittiere hopes to return to the Conference Championship where Hood played in 2017.  In contrast, Stevenson (11-15) has an older roster in 2022. Returning from Tommy John surgery, senior right-handed pitcher Sam Downs will be a great piece for Dave Gage's team.

FAVORITE: York