As the chilliness of winter starts to disappear and the flowers start blooming in April and May, the Eastern University Eagles Baseball team is starting to heat up at “The New Yard” on campus. As of April 19, the Eagles currently post a 22-13 record, the best record at this point in the season since 1995, and have had multiple players play part in this record-setting year by hitting major milestones.
Many of these players are the seniors, a core group who provide leadership, family, and have been some of their best baseball players on the new turf field. Senior left-fielder Tom Kozlusky recently recorded his 100th career hit, after only recording one his freshman year. “It was a cultivation of all the hard work I have put in over the years,” the Quakertown native said.
Kozlusky has batted all around the Eastern lineup, but has consistently been their number one option in left-field this season. He bats at the top of the order, seeing the second most at-bats on the team, and Eastern has stacked him and Luke Meehan, another senior, in the 2 and 3 spots respectively.
Meehan, a first-baseman, has 36 hits so far this year and has also tallied 4 home-runs. Meehan also has elite music taste, using Van Halen’s ‘Aint Talkin Bout Love’ as his choice. “Van Halen is one of my favorite bands… it just fires me up a little before every at-bat,” Meehan said.
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Another crucial senior on the offensive side of the ball is designated hitter Justin DiCesare. DiCesare is the Eagles’ go-to pinch hitter in “high leverage” situations, and he credits this to his mindset. “You need to have a killer mentality. You are given one shot; there is no other at bat after this one,” Dicesare said. “Knowing Coach Renauro has extreme trust in me in these situations gives me the confidence at the plate to come through.”
Offensively, the Eagles post a .312 batting average, 17 home runs, and 120 stolen-bases. Kozlusky has stolen 26 of the 120 bags.
On the other side of the ball, the Eastern pitching staff has been lights-out so far this season. They have a team ERA of 4.90 and 225 combined strike-outs. While their starting rotation has been headlined by juniors Brennan Moloughney and Graham Adams, their bullpen has been highlighted by Seniors Blake Weinstein and Connor Viola.
Weinstein started his career at Cabrini University, but when their closure was announced, he jumped across Eagle Road and took on a new journey at Eastern. Weinstein will be an Eastern baseball trivia answer in a few years after he recorded the first ever win at Eastern’s new turf field against Lancaster Bible College in February. “The guys embraced me right away,” Weinstein said about his experience transferring. “It was the perfect fit… Getting the first win at our first home win at the new field was awesome,” he added.
The bullpen has also been boosted by Connor Viola, who has not pitched much until this season due to some injury struggles, credits his fellow teammates for his success so far this season. “I just wanted to get better… and that is a product of our culture as a senior class. We are hardworking and want to be on the field no matter what,” Viola said.
Viola has 14 strikeouts this year and has pitched 8 games without allowing a run. Weinstein has 8 strikeouts and a 3.18 ERA.
The seniors cumulatively credit their success to the team being like a family. Between giving each other nicknames to pushing each other in the gym to the best of their abilities, the entire roster feels close. Some of the seniors credit this to previous leaders on the team.
“From my first year, the upperclassmen set the tone by demonstrating a strong sense of class and brotherhood, something I deeply admired. As a team, we’ve worked to carry that standard forward,” senior Will Carroll said.
Meehan shared similar thoughts, but he added that they all come together to have a common goal: win. Collectively, the team believes they can win any given weekend against anyone, regardless of what anyone else thinks. This has been their mentality all season.
As playoffs are rapidly approaching, Eastern currently sits 4th in the MAC Commonwealth, behind Messiah, Hood and Widener– whom they will close their season against on April 25 in a double header at The New Yard. Things look to be on the rise for this Eastern Baseball team, but there is still work to be done, as all the seniors look to clinch playoffs for the first time since 2021.
