Saint Joseph's baseball
Saint Joseph's announced on Monday the addition of nine players to the baseball program for the upcoming 2020 season. The class includes freshmen Brandon Drapeau, Nick Embleton, Adam Fine, Peter Gallo, Alec Rodriguez, Patrick Shearer, Luca Trigiani, and Cam Walker, and junior transfer Noah Weber.

"The collective group of 2020 newcomers is very solid, with several players that could make an immediate impact, even with a veteran group returning," head coach Fritz Hamburg told SJUHawks.com. "All nine student-athletes had a great deal of success throughout their high school/community college careers, and they will have the opportunity to compete for various and significant roles on this year's ballclub."

Of the newest additions, Drapeau appears to be the most intriguing. A product of Garnet Valley, the Clearview High School graduate stands 6-foot-5, 230-pounds. He earned All-Conference honors twice as both a first baseman and a pitcher and played travel ball with MSI National.

"He had a very solid junior year at Clearview, as well as a strong 2018 summer with the Mid-Atlantic Show," Hamburg said. "He will have the opportunity to be a two-way player for us. He has shown some growth through the fall, which we were hoping to see. With his frame and size, Brandon should be a guy who hits for power over the next few years, as well as contributes on mound."

Pitching is certainly an area the Hawks hope to improve upon in 2020. The club finished last year with a 5.34 ERA and ranked ninth out of the 13 clubs in the Atlantic 10.

Weber is another interesting addition. He was an NJCAA Division III All-American in 2019, posting a 1.61 ERA along with 57 strikeouts for Northampton Community College over 78 1/3 innings.

"Noah had an outstanding career for coach Adrian Yaguez and the Northampton Spartans and was a big part of the 2019 team that advanced to the NJCAA Division III World Series," Hamburg said. "Noah should absolutely push to be a weekend starter for us. He has some solid competition from the rest of the staff for that role, but he has the skillset to push the issue. He has an ability to be very good. He is very detailed with his work and I've been doing this long enough to know that those guys have a chance to win every time out. We are very excited that Noah is a Hawk."

The Hawks finished 21-28 overall last season but fared better in conference play posting a 13-11 record, a six-win improvement over their conference record in 2018.

"We are certainly excited to see how these guys develop and contribute to our program over the next three to four years," Hamburg said.
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Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PGordonPBR

BY PATRICK GORDON
Managing Editor
pgordon@philadelphiabaseballreview.com

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