WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Led by Player-of-the-Year Luke Broadhurst (Stafford), a

total of seven members of the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball program have been recognized by the American Baseball Coaches' Association (ABCA) and by D3baseball.com with New England regional awards for the 2021 season.

Broadhurst, a senior third baseman who was earlier named as the Little East Conference Player-of-the-Year, was named New England Region Player-of-the-Year by both the ABCA and by D3baseball.com and was joined as a first-team selection on both teams by senior right-handed pitcher Josh Vincent (New London) and senior leftfielder and team captain John Mesagno (Tappan, NY).

In addition to the first-team selections, third-year head coach Brian Hamm followed up his Little East Coach-of-the-Year honors by being voted Coach-of-the-Year by D3baseball.com after leading the Warriors to the Little East regular-season title, to the No. 1 ranking in New England for five consecutive weeks, top seed in the NCAA Auburn, NY Regional, No. 12 national rank and to the program's 35^th NCAA Division III tournament.
 
Additionally recognized by the ABCA were junior left-handed pitcher Aidan Dunn (Westfield, MA) as a second-team pick and sophomore righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) as a third-teamer, while junior shortstop Owen Marica (Haddam) was named as the third-team shortstop by D3Baseball.com.

In all, Eastern's entire starting infield was named either All-LEC or All-New England or both, as was two-thirds of its starting outfield, two starting pitchers and one relief pitcher. Vincent was additionally recognized as the LEC Pitcher-of-the-Year.

The All-New England honor is the first in the careers of all six players.

"We are proud of all of our players for this recognition," stated Hamm. "They worked hard this year and each made big strides in their development. Their success is also a testament to the success of our team and the support that they receive from their teammates." In reference to his Coach-of-the-Year honor, Hamm added that "to be recognized by the New England baseball coaches means a lot to me and the coaching staff. This honors all of us: our coaching staff, athletic trainers, and support staff do a great job providing an environment for our players to perform at their best. This honor along with the success of our team is also a reflection of the outstanding leadership of our director of athletics, Lori Runksmeier. The efforts she put forward behind the scenes this year helped our sports teams make the most of the Covid-year."
 

Broadhurst becomes the program's fifth ABCA New England Player-of-the-Year in the last 14 years, following utility player Shawn Gilblair in 2007 and 2009, utility player Jim  Schult in 20011 and centerfielder Alex Zachary in 2017. Gilblair, Schult and Zachary are among the 21 first-team All-Americas in program history. Broadhurst becomes the program's first D3baseball.com regional Player-of-the-Year.

The only Eastern player to start every game for the 32-8 Warriors, Broadhurst led or shared the team lead as the cleanup hitter in batting (.397), runs (47), triples (4), slugging (.766), walks (27), hit-by-pitch (9) and on-base percentage (.514). In seven LEC and NCAA post-season games, he batted .321 with three home runs.

Mesagno, who started 39 games, surpassed his previous season-best in virtually every offensive category. He led the team in at-bats (155), hits (60), doubles (16), home runs (12), RBI (47), and total bases (114), shared the team lead with Broadhurst in runs and hit-by-pitch and was second to Broadhurst in batting (.387), slugging (.735) and on-base percentage (.462). In seven post-season games, Mesagno led the Warriors offensively with a .379 average, five home runs, 12 RBI and eight runs scored and had the game-winning hit in three straight conference tournament wins.

In his first full season at Eastern, Vincent was 6-2 with a 1.72 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings. He started nine games and shared five shutouts, with opposing batters managing only a .186 average. In an 11-0, seven-inning Little East home win over Keene State College May 7, Vincent pitched the first five innings of the program's 13 no-hitter. In the post-season, Vincent was 0-1with a 3.79 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 19 innings.

With only nine career varsity innings to his credit entering the season, Dunn fashioned a staff-leading 0.91 ERA in ten appearances (nine starts), winning all five of his decisions, sharing two shutouts and holding opponents to a .168 batting average. In 39 2/3 innings, he struck out 43 and walked only 14. He started one post-season game without a decision and a 3.86 ERA in 4 2/3 innings.
 

With only 4 1/3 career varsity innings under his belt prior to 2021, Furino was second on the staff with 17 appearances, winning three of four decisions with a staff-high four saves and a 2.28 ERA. He struck out 40 and walked only five in 27 2/3 innings. Two of his wins came in relief in the Little East tournament. In all, he appeared in four post-season games out of the bullpen with a 2-1 record and 4.50 ERA in six innings.

In his second full season, Marica started 39 games and batted .317 with 27 runs and a .424 on-base percentage and was second on the team with five sacrifice bunts. Defensively, he led the team with102 assists and contributed to 15 double plays. In seven post-season games, Marica led Eastern with 24 assists and had a .969 fielding percentage on 32 chances.

First-team ABCA and D3baseball.com all-region selections are eligible for All-America honors when those teams are announced this week. The D3baseball.com All-America team and the national Player-of-the-Year, Pitcher-of-the-Year and Rookie-of-the-Year will be announced Wednesday and the ABCA All-America team will be revealed Thursday, the night prior to the start of the NCAA Division III national tournament. The ABCA Player-of-the-Year and Pitcher-of-the-Year will be announced later this month, as will the ABCA Gold Glove winners.
 

2021 New England ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Teams
NCAA Div. III New England All-Region First Team
Pos.	Player	Cl.	School	State
C	Clay Sowell	So.	Tufts	MA
1B	Brandon Jenkins	Sr.	Roger Williams	RI
2B	Anthony Laureano	Sr.	Mitchell	CT
3B	Luke Broadhurst	Sr.	Eastern Connecticut	CT
SS	Kosta Drosidis	Jr.	Anna Maria	MA
OF	Jacob Studley	Jr.	Wheaton	MA
OF	Dougie DelaCruz	Jr.	Mitchell	CT
OF	Hunter Yaworski	Jr.	Mitchell	CT
OF	John Mesagno	Sr.	Eastern Connecticut	CT
DH	Cameron Seymour	Fr.	Southern Maine	ME
UT	Adam Twitchell	Sr.	Anna Maria	MA
P	Ben Lambert	Sr.	Southern Maine	ME
P	Jordy Allard	Sr.	Babson	MA
P	Bryce Afthim	Fr.	Southern Maine	ME
P	Josh Vincent	Sr.	Eastern Connecticut	CT
NCAA Div. III New England All-Region Second Team
Pos.	Player	Cl.	School	State
C	Luke Hall	Sr.	Brandeis	MA
1B	Kyle Bouchard	Gr.	Nichols	MA
2B	Victor Oppenheimer	Gr.	Brandeis	MA
2B	Daniel Qin	Jr.	Amherst	MA
3B	James Powers	So.	Anna Maria	MA
SS	Andrew Olszak	Sr.	Southern Maine	MA
OF	Codi Smith	Sr.	Northern Vermont-Lyndon	VT
OF	Erik Mini	Sr.	Williams	MA
OF	Caleb Shpur	So.	Endicott	MA
DH	Cabot Maher	Jr.	Colby	ME
UT	Jakari Pellegrini	Sr.	Mitchell	CT
P	Josh Roberge	Sr.	Wheaton	MA
P	Aidan Dunn	Jr.	Eastern Connecticut	CT
P	Brendan McFall	Jr.	Tufts	MA
P	Roland Thivierge	Sr.	Mitchell	CT
RP	Henry Leake	Sr.	Babson	MA
NCAA Div. III New England All-Region Third Team
Pos.	Player	Cl.	School	State
C	Zach DeMattio	Jr.	Wheaton	MA
1B	Zachary May	Sr.	Fitchburg State	MA
2B	Danny Roth	Gr.	Roger Williams	RI
3B	Ray Zincone	Sr.	Rhode Island	RI
3B	Garrett Langis	Fr.	New England	NH
SS	Nate Cormier	Sr.	Nichols	MA
OF	DJ Caron	Jr.	Nichols	MA
OF	Sam Troiano	Jr.	Southern Maine	ME
OF	Kyle Gleason	Sr.	Thomas	ME
DH	Jake Nardone	So.	Endicott	MA
UT	Christian Seariac	Gr.	Suffolk	MA
P	Gavin Reily	Jr.	Wheaton	MA
P	Shaun Gamelin	Jr.	Rhode Island	RI
P	Griffin Young	Jr.	Wheaton	MA
P	Jack Dicenso	Gr.	Nichols	MA
P	Justin Garcia	Sr.	Roger Williams	RI
P	Nathan Furino	So.	Eastern Connecticut	CT
Position Player of the Year: Luke Broadhurst, Sr., Eastern Connecticut
Pitcher of the Year: Jordy Allard, Sr., Babson

  Players were nominated for these awards by the Sports Information Directors at the various schools.

Player of the Year: Luke Broadhurst, Sr., 3B, Eastern Connecticut State
Pitcher of the Year: Jordy Allard, Sr., Babson
Rookie of the Year: Cam Seymour, C/DH, Southern Maine
Coach of the Year: Brian Hamm, Eastern Connecticut State

First Team
Pos.	Name	School	Yr.	Hometown
C	Clay Sowell	Tufts	So.	Kingwood, Texas
1B	Kyle Bouchard	Nichols	Sr.	Fall River, Mass.
2B	Daniel Qin	Amherst	So.	Issaquah, Wash.
SS	Kosta Drosidis	Anna Maria	Jr.	Holden, Mass.
3B	Luke Broadhurst	Eastern Conn. State	Sr.	Stafford, Conn.
OF	Dougie DelaCruz	Mitchell	Jr.	Uncasville, Conn.
OF	John Mesagno	Eastern Conn. State	Sr.	Tappan, N.Y.
OF	Hunter Yaworski	Mitchell	Jr.	Brooklyn, Conn.
DH	Cam Seymour	Southern Maine	Fr.	Saco, Maine
UTL	Jakari Pellegrini	Mitchell	Sr.	New Britain, Conn.
SP	Jordy Allard	Babson	Sr.	Woodstock, Vt.
SP	Ben Lambert	Southern Maine	Sr.	Saco, Maine
SP	Josh Vincent	Eastern Conn. State	Sr.	New London, Conn.
RP	Henry Leake	Babson	Sr.	Burbank, Calif.
Second Team
Pos.	Name	School	Yr.	Hometown
C	Luke Hall	Brandeis	Sr.	Georgetown, Mass.
1B	Andrew Hillier	Southern Maine	Sr.	Bangor, Maine
2B	Jeffrey Brennan	WPI	So.	Amsterdam, N.Y.
SS	Nathaniel Cormier	Nichols	Sr.	Sandisfield, Mass.
3B	James Powers	Anna Maria	So.	Folsom, Calif.
OF	Erik Mini	Williams	Sr.	Greenwich, Conn.
OF	Codi Smith	NV-Lyndon	Sr.	Hartford, Vt.
OF	Caleb Shpur	Endicott	So.	East Canaan, Conn.
OF	Jacob Studley	Wheaton (Mass.)	Jr.	Barrington, R.I.
DH	Zach Piroh	Salem State	Sr.	Bridgeport, Conn.
UTL	Stephen Quigley	Wheaton (Mass.)	Jr	Halifax, Mass.
SP	Jack Dicenso	Nichols	Sr.	Norfolk, Conn.
SP	Gavin Reily	Wheaton (Mass.)	Sr.	Bridgewater, Mass.
SP	Roland Thivierge	Mitchell	Sr.	Portland, Conn.
RP	Josh Roberge	Wheaton (Mass.)	Sr.	Chelmsford, Mass.
Third Team
Pos.	Name	School	Yr.	Hometown
C	Zach DeMattio	Wheaton (Mass.)	Jr.	North Attleboro, Mass.
1B	Jakob Cohn	Williams	So.	Charlotte, N.C.
2B	Danny Roth	Roger Williams	Gr.	West Hartford, Conn.
SS	Owen Marica	Eastern Conn. State	Jr.	Haddam, Conn.
3B	Ray Zincone	Rhode Island College	Sr.	West Warwick, R.I.
OF	Brian Hadden	Dean	Sr.	Newburyport, Mass.
OF	Joseph Millar	Endicott	Jr.	Lake Hopatcong, N.J.
OF	Sam Troiano	Southern Maine	Jr.	South Portland, Maine
DH	Jake Nardone	Endicott	So.	Wakefield, Mass.
Utl	Luke Stephens	Saint Joseph's (Maine)	Fr.	Glastonbury, Conn.
SP	Nick Giattino	Amherst	Fr.	Pound Ridge, N.Y.
SP	Harrison Lendrum	Husson	So.	Exeter, N.H.
SP	Chris Naylor	Husson	Fr.	Windham, Maine
SP	Michael Volgende	Tufts	Jr.	Ridgefield, Conn.
RP	Bryce Afthim	Southern Maine	Fr.	Windham, Maine