Hawks' Season Ends in Region Tournament
The College of Southern Maryland Hawks baseball team’s 2022-23 season concluded on May 9 with a 7-6 loss to the Anne Arundel Community College Riverhawks in the play-in round of the NJCAA Region 20 Division II Tournament.
The College of Southern Maryland Hawks baseball team's 2022-23 season concluded on May 9 with a 7-6 loss to the Anne Arundel Community College Riverhawks in the play-in round of the NJCAA Region 20 Division II Tournament.
The Hawks earned the No. 7 seed in the Region 20 Division II Tournament after finishing the regular season with a 9-11 record in Region 20 Division II play. This was CSM's third consecutive year making the Region 20 Division II Tournament.
The Hawks had an up-and-down year in the win-loss column. They never had a losing streak longer than four games, but also never had a winning streak longer than three games.
The Hawks went 1-4 in the month of February. CSM dropped their first four games of the season before picking up their first win against Region 20 Division II opponent Anne Arundel on February 26.
CSM went 6-7 in March. They suffered three road sweeps to Region 20 Division II opponents (Montgomery, Frederick, and CCBC Essex) but swept two non-region opponents (Bronx Community College, Central Penn College).
The Hawks posted their largest margin of victory and most runs scored in a game in their 17-1 Game 2 five-inning win over Bronx Community College on March 11.
CSM ended up having back-to-back matchups against 2022-23 Region 20-Division-winning teams - they split against Division III champions Prince George's Community College on March 14, and then dropped both of their games to the Division II champions Frederick Community College on March 18.
Through the month of April and the first day of May, the Hawks went 8-4 against Region 20 Division II opponents. CSM secured two critical Region 20 Division II sweeps of Chesapeake College on April 2 and Cecil College on April 23 before heading into the Region 20 Division II Tournament.
Justin Aponte, Andrew Leginze, and Roy Tayman were named to the 2022-23 NJCAA All-Region 20 Division II and All-Maryland JUCO Teams. Aponte was named to the All-Region 20 Division II and All-Maryland JUCO First Teams, Leginze was named to the All-Maryland JUCO First Team and the All-Region 20 Division II Second Team, and Tayman was named an Honorable Mention for both All-Region 20 Division II and All-Maryland JUCO.
Aponte finished third among Region 20 Division II hitters in batting average at .434. He tied for third in doubles with 14 and tied for second in triples with four. He also ranked sixth in slugging percentage at .664, and tied for 12th in stolen bases with 17.
Aponte and Leginze tied for 12th in hits with 53.
Leginze finished fourth among Region 20 Division II hitters in batting average at .431, and he was 11th in on-base percentage at .493. Leginze led the Hawks in RBIs with 33. He also went 5-1 on the mound for CSM with a save and a complete game. He pitched the third-most innings for the Hawks (32.1).
Tayman accumulated five wins to go along with a save and three complete games. He posted his season-high of eight strikeouts three times - first, when he surrendered only one hit over five innings to Bronx Community College in CSM's Game 1 10-0 win, the second time in a great outing against Frederick Community College, and third, in CSM's Game 1 win of their sweep over Chesapeake College. Tayman finished the year with a 4.35 ERA, good enough to rank him 10th among Region 20 Division II pitchers. He tied for sixth in strikeouts with 56.
Tariq Johnson made a tremendous improvement on the mound over his freshman season, serving as a key member of this year's pitching staff. Last year, he appeared in seven games and gave up 14 earned runs and 12 walks over 6.1 innings pitched while posting a 19.89 ERA. This year, he made 16 appearances, started three games, had a 4-2 record while registering a save, and gave up only two more earned runs (16) and six more walks (18) than last year while pitching more than five times more innings (33.1 innings pitched). Johnson also amassed 40 strikeouts and finished with a 4.32 ERA.
Hunter Rose, Jaden Gallagher, and Drew Colaizzi tied for the team lead in home runs with three. Rose was second on the team in runs and RBIs with 28 each and in stolen bases with 10. Gallagher finished second on the team in walks with 21 and Colaizzi finished third in slugging percentage at .533.
CSM ended the year with an 18-23 overall record.