WESTFIELD – With the 2020 baseball season quickly approaching, the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper has announced its list of “players to watch” which included several members of the Westfield State University baseball team.
Senior Casey Boudreau (Shrewsbury, Mass.) along with juniors Nick Martin (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and Shane Bogli (Vernon, Conn.) were all on the list for the upcoming season.
Last year, the Owls finished with a 28-16 overall record and made their second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, winning a first-round game against #19 Ithaca.
Boudreau, Martin, and Bogli all played a big role in that success last season.
Boudreau finished with All-Conference honors, hitting .345 with eight doubles, one triple, and 21 RBI. He played a clutch role in the Owls’ 4-2 NCAA win over Ithaca, scoring the first run of the contest and knocking in the second only one at-bat later. Boudreau split time between second base and the outfield last year, developing into a handy utility player on the defensive side of the ball as well. The rising senior committed just three errors and posted a .958 fielding percentage in 35 games played in 2019.
Martin, a former American Legion teammate of Boudreau’s, was also named to the MASCAC All-Conference team last year, finishing with a .331 average at the plate, six doubles, two triples, a home run, and 20 RBI. Defensively, he started the season behind the plate, but would end up in the outfield, giving the Owls more speed in perhaps one of the fastest outfield groups of the region. Martin also spent time with the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) champion Worcester Bravehearts this summer, where he provided the club with six doubles, one triple, two home runs, and 22 runs scored in 37 games.
Bogli was a pleasant surprise on the mound for the Owls this past season, going 8-3 with a 2.83 ERA in 66 innings of work. He struck out 45 batters, while only walking nine the entire year and chipped in a couple of complete games in the process. This past summer, Bogli was brought on by the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s (NECBL) Bristol Blues, where he went 2-0 in three starts, striking out eight batters and, in Bogli fashion, only walking three in over 16 innings of work.
Last year, the Owls finished with a 28-16 overall record and made their second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, winning a first-round game against #19 Ithaca.
The Owls will certainly look to these three and more, as they are scheduled to open up the year on February 29th with a three-game weekend set at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper annually releases a closer look at the top players across the United States in their “Top Players to Watch” feature, roughly containing 200 names of athletes across the nation. Also in that same issue is the Collegiate Baseball News Div. III Top 40 Poll, where the Owls were listed as ‘receiving votes’ for the 2020 season. – Courtesy of Westfield State University Sports
