The Eagles’ baseball team is off to a slow start this season; however, after a recent two-game winning streak, look for the Eagles to stay hot. They defeated Wesley College 6-5 and Muhlenberg College 15-6. So far this season the Eagles have three wins and eight losses, and the offense and pitching has struggled. The Eagles are beginning this season similar to last season and hopefully that changes.

The Eagles’ first win came against Wesley College. Chris Marinaccio was the starting pitcher and pitched four strong innings. Then Mike McCracken relieved him for two innings to get the win. Left fielder Angelo Kelly had two hits with two runs scored. First baseman Joe Grato went one for three with two RBI’s. It was a really close game till the end as Wesley College scored two runs in the final inning; however Josh Freed closed the game earning his first save.

Here are some Eagles to watch as they have started the season strong. Kelly is batting .345 with 12 hits in 29 at-bats. With 11 walks, his on-base percentage is the highest on the team at .525. Freshman Timmy Gorton has demonstrated his skills at the plate, with 12 hits in 37 at bats. He is batting .324 with 5 RBIs. Senior pitcher Austin Little is also playing well. In four appearances, two of which he started, he leads the team with 13 strikeouts and an impressive ERA of 3.38. Freshman McCracken has taken well to his relief role. In 4.2 innings pitched opposing batters have hit .125. He also has not allowed a run yet in his 3 appearances.The mix of the freshman and veteran talent so far this season is proving to be successful.

As March comes to an end, the April games begin. The Eagles will face, FDU-Florham (4/1), DeSales University (4/2) (4/6), Immaculata University (4/8), King’s College (4/10-11), Manhattanville College (4/12), Widener University (4/15), Misericordia University (4/17-18), FDU-Florham (4/19), Messiah College (4/20), Lebanon Valley College (4/22), Delaware Valley College (4/24-25), and finally Rutgers-Camden (4/27). The month of April is composed of challenging games and requires the Eagles to stay focused and play at a different level than they did in the month of March.

Eastern’s tennis team journeyed to Orlando Florida during Spring Break to compete against Regis College. The Eagles’ men’s and women’s teams got to practice day and night on a resort (practice they would not have got in snowy Pennsylvania). Although the Eagles’ men’s and women’s teams lost by a score of 1-8 to Regis, the experience proved to be worth it.

Men’s tennis falls to 1-3 for the season. During spring break sophomore Kyle Berner played an impressive match defeating Nathan Cohen of Regis College 6-2, 6-2. The guys were competitive and proved they can play at a high level. The men’s team faced Rosemont College when they returned. They breezed past Rosemont, winning the game by a score of 9-0. Grant Williams, Berner, Mitchell Weaver, John Anchundia, Christian Torres and Tim Bowdoin came out victorious in singles competition. In doubles competition the men’s tennis team went 3-0. The Eagles played Cabrini but played only half the originally scheduled matches. The other half of the matches are to be rescheduled. In the first half of these matches, the Eagles are down 4-1. Look for Williams and Berner to stay focused this season as they have been exceptionally well. Berner this season has yet to lose a singles match and looks to keep up the streak.

Women’s tennis is 2-4 this season and they are looking to shake off their matches in Orlando and look forward to their next games. Megan Klosterman and Laura Thomas played an impressive game as they won the first doubles match in Orlando 9-7. After returning to Pennsylvania, the Eagles played Lancaster Bible College. The competition in Orlando proved to benefit the Eagles as they won 9-0. Thomas, Kelly Archibold, Angela Anthony, Leslie Henry, Emily Thomas and Hannah Reed came out successful in their single competition.

In April, both the women’s and men’s tennis teams will face Wilkes University (4/2), King’s College (4/11), Arcadia University (4/15), FDU-Florham (4/18), Neumann University (4/21) and finally Delaware Valley College (4/25). Additionally, the women’s tennis team plays Alvernia University (4/22), and the men’s tennis team plays Lancaster Bible College (4/23). The tennis team has an opportunity to successfully finish the season over .500. However, the next games will be competitive and the Eagles will need to stay focused.

Eastern’s softball team finished the 2014 season 16-19, with an away record of 10-9. The club struggled playing at home as they were 3-6. The Eagles begin the 2015 season traveling westward to Arizona. They begin their spring break with games against Siena Heights University, otherwise known as the Saints (3/1). The Saints hail from Michigan and finished last season 20-21. The Tucson Invitational Games will be beneficial to the Eagles because it offers different levels of competition that the Eagles would not usually play. After spring break, the Eagles’ first six games are against: Immaculata University (3/14), Manhattanville College (3/18), Haverford College (3/19), FDU- Florham (3/21), Widener University (3/23), and lastly, the Eagles’ rival, Cabrini College (3/24). Last season the Eagles were 2-0 against Cabrini.

Coach Brittany Stroop enters her sixth season as Eagles head coach. Under Coach Stroop the Eagles are 80-103-1. Coach Stroop is inching closer to the 100-win mark. This season she has a chance to reach that mark. Under Coach Stroop last season, Alyssa Welsh, Ashton Tomlinson, and Kasey Williams earned All-Conference Honors. Williams was given an honorable mention. Welsh and Tomlinson were named to the Freedom Conference second team.

The Eagles are a young team this season, with six freshmen and nine sophomores. Lone senior Emily Houck will be looked upon to help guide this young Eagle squad. Houck batted .287 with 2 homeruns and 25 runs batted in. In her three seasons as an Eagle, Houck has collected 109 hits, and will look to improve on that terrific achievement. Returning for her third season, infielder Williams looks to put up impressive numbers again. She batted an eye-popping .374 and led her club with 46 hits. Sophomore Tomlinson batted .348 with 39 hits. She led the team with nine doubles and four triples. The Eagles as a whole batted .285, with an on base percentage of .343. The Eagles offense looks promising. The majority of the line-up was first year players, which played really well, and now with some experience they will push to improve.

The Eagles pitching staff last season was strong with some room for improvement. The staff last season was composed of first year players. They had an ERA of 4.01, 137 strikeouts and 63 walks. 82 of those 137 strikeouts belong to Welsh. In her first season she was 6-13 with 13 complete games and 2 shutouts. She also pitched a no-hitter against Wilkes University. Welsh will lead the pitching rotation and promises another spectacular season. Brushing off their rookie season, the pitching staff looks to make an impact this season.

The Eagles have potential this season to finish over .500. They have all the tools and weapons to have a successful season.

Spring Break is quickly approaching and that means the commencement of spring sports. The Eagles’ spring teams are ready to begin the season. This year, several Eastern clubs will travel to warm weather for spring break.

We begin with the Eagles’ tennis team. The Eagles will be heading down to Orlando Florida February 27th. They then face Regis College on March 2nd. Regis’ men’s tennis team went 5-2 and the women went 11-1 during the fall season. This is great competition for the Eagles and a positive way to begin the spring season.

The Eagles’ softball team will be heading to the Midwest this spring. The Eagles will arrive in Arizona on February 28th. They will play a total of ten games, facing four teams they have never played before. The Eagles face Siena Heights University in a double header (3/1), Northwestern College (3/2), Siena Heights University (3/4), University of Great Falls (3/4 and 3/5), Northwestern College in a double header (3/5), Siena Heights University (3/6) and lastly Aquinas College (3/6). The team to beat is the Northwestern Raiders, who finished last season ranked 2nd with a record of 31-18. However, the Eagles are fierce competitors ready to make a statement this spring.

The Eagles’ baseball team looks to play a few games this spring break. They begin their spring break playing John Hopkins (2/28), Mary Washington in a double header (3/1), Methodist University (3/4), and lastly Lynchburg College in a double header. Hopefully the snow clears up in the Northeast.

The women’s lacrosse team will migrate to Hilton Head, South Carolina to play two games. The first game will be played on March 2nd against Walsh University Cavaliers. The Cavaliers finished last season 6-9, making it to the playoffs, but lost in the first round. The Eagles next opponent is SUNY Potsdam on March 4th. The Potsdam Bears went 4-11 last season with a 0-8 record in conference play. The Eagles look to start the season strong with a chance to bring two wins back home. As for Men’s lacrosse, they will stay local this spring break and host Aurora University March 4th.

Eastern’s baseball club is coming out of hibernation as a new team to start off the 2015 season, forgetting about last season. The Eagles open up with six away games. First the Eagles travel to Catholic University (2/21), followed by John Hopkins (2/28), Mary Washington (3/1), Methodist University (3/4), Lynchburg College (3/6) and finally Immaculata University (3/11) to end the away stretch. The Eagles open up at home on Friday the 13th (March).

The Eagles were 7-27 last season, with an away record of 1-15 and a home record of 6-8. The team lacked chemistry, as the club was unbalanced. Eastern’s opponents outscored them 276 to 190. When the game was close, and the pitching staff performed the offense could not manage to produce runs. On the other hand, when the offense produced runs, the pitching was being knocked around. Key for the Eagles this season is finding chemistry within the players and their sophomore coach Jed Morris. The Eagles welcome back Morris, as last season was his first season as the Eagles head coach. Coach Morris was an incredible catcher for the Cornhuskers, so with his experience working with pitchers look to him to shape the Eagles’ pitching rotation. On a positive note, the Eagles had five players recognized by the Freedom Conference last season. Retired Andrew DiFerdinando was named on the Freedom Conference First team, while Andrew Check, Ryan McMenamin, Eric Rossi and Joe Grato were named honorable mention players.

The Eagle’s roster consists of 16 new players, 14 of which are freshman. Of those 14 freshman recruits, eight are pitchers. Last season the Eagles had a staggering ERA of 7.38. The pitching staff had a total of 118 strikeouts and 148 walks. With these new arms in the rotation, the pitching rotation will become more diverse, with potential to cut the walks and ERA in half. Look for senior pitchers Austin Little and Tom Gordon to lead this young rotation as they have plenty to learn.

Offensively, the Eagles batting lineup is an intimidating bunch this season. Batters McMenamin, Check, and Grato will look to stay hot this season. Combined they batted .325, with a total of 114 hits. Outfielder Angelo Kelly returns to the Eagles this season, certainly adding depth to this high-powered offense. Kelly put up impressive numbers as a freshman, batting .284 with 31 hits. Impressively, in 109 at bats he only struck out nine times, so the man does not miss the ball. Look for him as well to help push the offense and defense. Overall, the Eagles offense looks impressive with a balance of contact and power hitters.

A tip of the hat to the Eagles’ seniors: Gordon, Little, Rossi, and McMenamin. In their last season, I can see them turning up the intensity and making a statement as leaders. Good luck, Eagles baseball!

It was the storyline that dominated all of Super Bowl week: the allegations that the New England Patriots deflated the majority of their footballs in an AFC Championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Does the hype fit the crime? Our writers debate.

[twocol_one]Deflate-Gate Is Not A Big Deal
Josh Velez

People let’s be real! The Patriots were beating the Colts whether or not they deflated the footballs. The Patriots are guided by playoff veteran QB Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick (21-9 in the postseason.) Let’s compare numbers between the Colts and Patriots. The Colts should not be worried about the Patriots using a deflated ball. They need to address their defense; maybe their defense should be fined for not showing up to the game. Ex-Steeler LeGarrette Blount ran through the Colts’ defensive line. On 30 carries he ran for 148 yards with three touchdowns. As for the Colts defensive backs, how does Julian Edelman have nine receptions with 98 yards. Let’s time travel back to November 16th, week 11 of the NFL season. The Patriots dominated the Colts, 42-20. People let’s be real! The Patriots are only hearing these accusations because they won. What if they lost? I am sure the NFL would still fine them, but the media would give them no attention. All focus would be on Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning’s predecessor, as he made it to the Super Bowl. Let’s just drop this deflate-gate scandal, as the NFL has done. I do not believe a deflated ball plays defense, so let’s criticize the Colts’ defense before the Patriots. According to ESPN.com, Ex-QB Jeff Blake responds to the deflate-gate scandal saying, “So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s nothing that’s not been done for 20 years.” Along those lines, Packer’s quarterback Aaron Rodgers reports that he over inflates the ball. According to NBC Sports, Rodgers reportedly told Phil Simms, “I like to push the limit to how much air we can put in the football, even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take air out of it.” Quarterbacks have different preferences. If a QB can play with an overinflated ball without getting reprimanded, then there is no need to take actions towards the Patriots. I applaud Tom Brady and Bill Belichick for handling the situation professionally, not allowing the media to get the best of them.

If the numbers do not convince you, let’s take the scientific perspective. The weather certainly could have played a role in the football losing air. The footballs are stored in temperature controlled climate, around 70 degrees. Then they are taken into the arena where the temperature drops 20 degrees. For all you science majors, what happens to gas (air) molecules at lower temperatures? They move slower, therefore leading the pressure within the football to decrease. I am not a Patriot fan, neither a fan of science, but when the facts are there why argue?
[/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]Patriots Should Be Punished
Alex Kraft

There’s something admirable about someone who will do whatever it takes to win. Who, even when the game is hardly in doubt, will go that extra step to ensure that they do not have to return home as losers.

Yet, as the New England Patriots put the finishing touches on a 45-7 undoing of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game, that admiration quickly turned to disgust with the revelation that the team had allegedly removed air from 11 of the 12 footballs used in the evening’s contest. The deflated balls ultimately would be easier to grip and hold on to, given that the game was played in pouring rain. And thus, the controversy that was uninspiringly dubbed “deflate-gate” was born.

I have my doubts about how much the under-inflated balls really impacted the outcome of the game that day. The Patriots 42-20 defeat of the Colts on Nov. 16 of the regular season showed people just how incapable the Colts’ defense was of stopping the Patriots’ attack. There was no reason to expect a bounce-back performance in this game, deflated footballs or not. But that’s not why I believe if the team is confirmed to be guilty of deflating those balls that it is definitely a big problem.

Fans go into sporting events expecting each team to stand an equal chance of winning. Now obviously disparity in skill level will prevent those odds from being perfectly even, but that’s the beauty of sports: the only deciding factor is skill level (discounting fluke occurrences like injuries or poor officiating). The moment that integrity is compromised, no matter how small the breach, it reflects poorly on the league and those involved. This sentiment was reflected by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell when he said in a Jan. 30 press conference, “Whether a competitive advantage was actually gained or not is secondary in my mind to whether that rule was violated.” In a business, when a rule is violated repercussions can be expected. Suppose a cashier steals five dollars from the register after his/her shift. Obviously it doesn’t hurt the company tremendously, if at all. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the act is against company policy, and looking past it certainly will not discourage similar behavior in the future.

Even so, this story would almost certainly be all but forgotten if it had happened to any other team. For coach Bill Belichick and the Patriots, this is not their first case of pushing the boundaries between competition and cheating. They are repeat offenders, the storyline that has driven the narrative from the get-go. In 2007, the Patriots were severely disciplined by the league for videotaping opponents’ hand signals in an incident known as “Spygate.” A stigma was born the day they were proven guilty of doing so, and it still surrounds the team in the minds of some football fans and media members. Unfortunately this latest misstep, if proven true, cannot and will not go unpunished, even as the team celebrates its fourth Super Bowl of the millennium.
[/twocol_one_last]

Springtime is approaching, and that means it’s the start of a new season for Eastern athletics. Let’s get ready to show our support! Leading off, we have Eastern’s baseball club, hoping to shake off a 7-27 season and bounce back this spring. As a whole they batted .270, while their pitching staff maintained a 7.38 ERA. However, with rising players such as third year first baseman Joe Grato, we can look forward to a promising season. Grato batted .300 with three homeruns, one those being a walk-off grand slam and 23 runs batted in. They open up Feb. 21 against Catholic University.

Eagles softball team will open this season in Arizona, where they will face new competition. They finished last season 16-19. Kasey Williams finished the season hot, batting .374 with 46 hits and 26 RBI’s and she will be looking to stay hot into the new season. Also with a new batch of freshman talent to help drive the team, I would say look for the Eagles to finish this season over .500.

As for Eastern’s golf team, the men will begin the spring season March 18 at the York Invitational following leaders Ryan Torresin and Andrew Barbin. Although the team is young, they have enough potential and will-power to make a positive impact this season. As for the women, they will travel to the Ursinus Invitational March 21, determined to come out victorious. Last season’s rounds leaders Bianca Scrimali and Kaleigh Boreman will be taking the green. This will be Boreman’s last season playing golf at Eastern.

For tennis, seniors Jenn Balbi and Angela Anthony enter their final season of tennis, ready to make an impact this spring. Last season, the men’s tennis team had seven wins and nine loses. The women last season went 9-8, with a fantastic home record of 7-1. The tennis team leaves for Orlando, FL spring break week, looking for a positive outcome this tournament.

The men’s lacrosse team looks to keep moving up the DIII, as they are ranked 20th in the country; they finished last season with a record of 14-5, while going 6-0 in the conference. They begin their season Feb. 21 against Swarthmore College. With a talented freshman class, and superb veterans the Eagles will be the biggest threat in the Mid-Atlantic Conference. Spring 2015 is going to be a spectacular season for our Eastern clubs, so let’s do our part as fans and cheer them on!