Baseball Has Three Earn NCBWA All-East Region Honors
RINDGE, N.H. (5/19/23) - The Franklin Pierce University baseball team saw six Ravens earn NCBWA All-East Region honors per the official announcement this past Wednesday by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
Topping the list was graduate utility Brian Hadden (Newburyport, Mass.) who was named to the NCBWA All-East Region First Team as a relief pitcher. Joining him as honorees is senior shortstop Ian Battipaglia (Cheshire, Conn.) and junior starting pitcher Kyle Roche (Braintree, Mass.), who each garnered NCBWA All-East Region Second Team honors.
The organization's All-Region teams are voted on by existing members of the NCBWA regional committees. Each individual selected to the NCBWA First-Team is automatically included in the All-America ballot, with the official teams expected to be announced later in the month.
Hadden, who played multiple roles on the Ravens' roster this season, earned the honor for his performance as a reliever in 2023. Through 14 appearances, Hadden led the Raven pitching staff with 7 total saves on the season, and posted a 2-1 overall record with a 2.60 earned run average. Hadden contributed 17.1 innings of relief work on the mound in 2023, and fanned 17 opponent batters with a measly 15 hits allowed. Earlier this year, Hadden was also selected to the Northeast-10 Conference's First Team for the same position.
Roche was one of the NE10's top-threat starting pitchers this season, which also earned him First Team recognition from the conference. The Raven junior led the NE10 in total strikeouts (97), and ranked third in overall wins with an 8-3 record through his 13-of-14 starts on the hill. In total, Roche completed the season with a 4.60 ERA with 63 hits allowed, and averaged 12.07 strikeouts per nine innings.
Ian Battipaglia, who is now a third time honoree by the NBCWA, was a top-10 finisher in the Northeast-10 Conference in batting average (.381), and was ranked 5th amongst conference players in stolen bases (24). As a Second Team and All-Defensive Team selection from the NE10 in 2023, Battipaglia was a frequent producer at the plate for the Ravens with 75 hits, including four home runs, 20 doubles, five triples and 38 runs batted in, which added to a .488 on-base percentage and a .594 slugging percentage across 54 games and 197 at-bats.