Play ball! For the 11
th time in the past 14 non-conference seasons, the first pitch of the Siena Baseball season will come from John Euliano Park. The Saints are set to begin their 2025 campaign when they once again battle Big 12 foe and 2024 NCAA Tournament participant Central Florida for a three-game weekend series in Orlando.
Red-shirt junior righthander
Alistair Morin is set to draw the Opening Day start for Siena opposite UCF righthander Dom Stagliano on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. Xavier transfer and Schenectady native
Tyler Sausville, a junior southpaw, is slated to get the Game Two start and make his Saints debut Saturday (6:30 p.m.) against righthander Wiley Hartley, while senior righthander
Noah Rodriguez will get the ball for the series finale Sunday (1 p.m.) opposing righthander Grant Seigel. The entirety of the season-opening three-game series will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Siena enters Year Two of the
Alex Jurczynski Era with a retooled roster as the Saints look to get back to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time in four years. Jurczynski and his staff brought in 14 newcomers this past offseason, featuring 11 transfers and three true freshmen. A total of five Saints – four of whom are newcomers –
were recognized by Perfect Game amongst the top draft prospects in the 2025, 2026, and 2027 Major League Baseball Drafts, respectively, including red-shirt freshman transfer
Aidan Paradine who was the publication's pick as its Preseason All-MAAC selection at catcher.
The additions will seek to help bolster a squad which posted a 12-40 overall record last season including an 8-16 record in MAAC action, which placed Siena ninth out of 11 teams in the final league standings. The Saints were predicted to finish 11
th out of 13 teams according to the MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
Siena does return lineup mainstays
Nick Bergamotto and
Gavin Thorburn who started 51 and 45 games, respectively, last season. On the mound, two-thirds of the end-of-season weekend rotation is back with Morin, who ranked second in the MAAC last season in batters struck out looking (29) thanks to his nasty repertoire, and converted closer Rodriguez.
As is customary, the Northeast located Saints will spend the entirety of the month of February on the road to kick off their 51-game slate this spring. Siena heads to Tennessee each of the next two weeks to close out the month, with weekend series against Bradley at the USA Baseball Complex (Feb. 21-23) and at East Tennessee State against the host Bucs and Binghamton (Feb. 28 – Mar. 1).
The Saints do however make their Capital Region debut earlier than ever before this spring when they open MAAC play against Manhattan at Connors Park (Mar. 7). The MAAC expands to a 30-game conference schedule in 2025 with the addition of two new league members, featuring 10 league series – five home and five away – while each team will have two MAAC foes that they will not face. With the league expanding to 13 members this season, the top-eight finishers will qualify for the 2025 MAAC Baseball Championships, which are set to be held for a fourth straight season at Clover Stadium in Pomona, New York from May 20-24.
UCF posted a 37-21 overall record last season including a 14-15 mark in their first season of Big 12 action, while making their first NCAA Regional appearance since 2017. The Knights were predicted to finish seventh out of 14 teams according to the Big 12 Preseason Coaches' Poll with Stagliano and fellow hurler Dominic Castellano earning Preseason All-Big 12 honors.
Siena has played Central Florida more times than any other non-conference opponent in a series which dates back to 1980. Perennial regional power UCF leads the all-time series 67-4 and has won 29 straight dating back to the Saints most recent win, a 7-4 triumph on Feb. 16, 2013. However, six games during the current losing streak have been decided by either one or two runs. All 71 games have been contested in Orlando.
