Stafford's Broadhurst Repeats As Top Conference Player For ECSU

WILLIMANTIC, CT — For the second year in a row, the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team has garnered more than a quarter of the 39 All-Little East Conference slots in the season-ending awards program, announced Tuesday. A member of the Warriors from Stafford was among those receiving accolades.

In addition to the team receiving six first-team, three second-team and one third-team selection, senior All-America third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) and fourth-year head coach Brian Hamm repeated as Player-of-the-Year and Coach-of-the-Year, respectively for the No. 1 nationally ranked Warriors who repeated last year’s LEC regular-season title with another 15-1 record, and added their tenth LEC tournament championship this past weekend.

Each of the three All-LEC teams were comprised of 13 players: one at every position except outfield, where three were named, along with three pitchers and one relief pitcher. Eastern was represented at every position except right field, first base, and designated hitter.

The program’s eighth Player-of-the-Year (an Eastern player won it four straight years between 2002 and 2005) Broadhurst becomes the third player in LEC baseball history and first for Eastern voted Player-of-the-Year in back-to-back seasons, and Hamm becomes the program’s third different head coach to earn the top coaching honor.

Broadhurst, a second-team All-LEC outfielder in 2019, was joined by five teammates on the first team: graduate outfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY), senior right-handed pitcher Bryan Albee (Killingly) and senior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme) and junior right-handed pitcher Billy Oldham (Brookfield) and junior shortstop Zach Donahue (South Windsor). Albee and Oldham were named as two of the three first-team starting pitchers.

Second-team picks were graduate right-handed pitcher Tommy Benincaso (Norwalk), senior left-handed pitcher Aidan Dunn (Westfield, MA) and senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury). Dunn was named as the second team’s relief pitcher. Senior Noah Plantamuro (Bristol) was voted as the third-team second baseman.

In addition to Broadhurst’s three career All-LEC nods, multiple all-conference selections in their careers include Mesagno, Plantamuro, Malcom, Oldham, and Dunn (Donahue and Benincaso are in their first seasons at Eastern). Mesagno and Plantamuro were also first-team picks at their respective positions in 2021 (with Mesagno going on to ABCA All-America honors), Oldham a second-teamer and Dunn a third-teamer at starting pitcher. In 2019, Malcom was named Rookie-of-the-Year in addition to being tabbed for the second team.

Among position players, Broadhurst leads the LEC in slugging (.808) and OPS (1.355), is second in batting (.432), tied for second in home runs (10), and tied for fifth in total bases (101); Malcom is second in RBI (51) and OPS (1.175) and tied for fifth in home runs (9); Bagasarian fourth in hits (61) and Mesagno tied for fifth in home runs (9).

Among pitchers, Albee is the LEC leader and ranked sixth nationally in ERA (1.23), tied for fifth nationally and the LEC leader in wins (10), also tops the conference in saves (4) and opposing batting average (.158) and is third in innings (65 2/3). Unless overtaken by a teammate in the NCAA tournament, Albee could perform the rare feat of leading the LEC in both wins and saves; Oldham is second in wins (9), opposing batting average (.190) and innings (71 1/3) and is third in ERA (2.27) and strikeouts (95); Dunn is second to Albee in ERA (1.63) and fourth in opposing batting average (.190) and Benincaso fifth in ERA (2.25) and opposing batting average (.211).

The Little East Conference team leader in batting (.342), ERA (2.87) and fielding (.970) – and ranked third nationally in ERA and ninth in batting -- Eastern (39-3) opens play in the NCAA Division III Rochester, NY Regional Friday at 11 a.m. against Swarthmore College.