Fairfield University is having another fantastic baseball season (20-7 and 8-1) in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and a Vermont connection is a major piece of it all.
The Stags are coached by 1984 University of Vermont graduate and ex-UVM baseball coach Bill Currier.
Ben Alekson, the 2023 Vermont Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year, has quickly branded himself as an ace on the Stags’ staff.
He is 10-2 between the 2024 and 2025 seasons with the Connecticut school.
His senior year at Peoples Academy in winning the Gatorade honor, Alekson was overpowering. He struck out 88 batters in 36 innings and boasted a 1.36 ERA.
He has not missed a beat in Division I college baseball and this year he has a 2.63 ERA, has fanned 36 hitters in 41 innings and is 4-1.
Another Vermonter having an outstanding season in Connecticut is UConn’s Olivar Pudvar, who is 3-1 with a 3.60 ERA.
Pudvar began his college career at Manhattan University, where he made the All-MAAC Rookie team in 2023 but missed the 2024 season due to an injury.
He is originally from Shelburne and a CVU graduate. This summer, Pudvar will be pitching in the New England Collegiate Baseball League for the Vermont Mountaineers, who benefitted from Alekson’s contributions last year.
The Mountaineers open the season June 3 with an away game against the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks. The Mountaineers’ home opener is June 6 at Recreation Field in Montpelier.
The college pitching road can also run in the other direction, from Connecticut to Vermont.
Nate Bigelow, from East Hampton, Conn., has asserted himself as the ace of the Vermont State University Lyndon staff. He is 3-0 this season with a 3.74 ERA. He has 18 strikeouts in 21.2 innings.
PLYMOUTH MEMORY
West Rutland senior Kennah Wright-Chapman is going into the Plymouth State University softball program in a great situation.
The solid hitting shortstop with great range and a cannon for an arm will be entering her freshman year when Plymouth starting shortstop Emily Bessette is a senior.
Wright-Chapman’s decision to attend the school in the foothills of the White Mountains brings to mind another player from Rutland County who had a terrific softball career at Plymouth.
Rutland High graduate Sara Wormwood batted .356 from 1997 through 2000, ripping 142 base hits in 399 plate appearances. Her seven home runs in 1999 is fourth best all time for the Panthers and her 16 career homers is fifth best in program history.
Wormwood also had three doubles in a game in 2000 against UMass Dartmouth, tied for tops in that department.
BASSETT TO ST. A’s
While Wright-Chapman is coming to Plymouth, Rutland’s Jonah Bassett is leaving the school. Bassett is transferring from Plymouth State to St. Anselm to continue his football career.
Bassett had a memorable “homecoming” in 2024 when the Panthers won 21-6 at Vermont State University Castleton. He was the star of the game by turning away two Castleton drives with interceptions in the end zone.
He is a big-play guy with a proficiency for making interceptions and blocking kicks.
CASTLETON BASEBALL
The Vermont State University baseball team missed out on making the six-team 2024 Little East Conference postseason baseball playoffs by one game in 2024.
If last Friday’s play at Eastern Connecticut was any indication, the Spartans should have a great shot at being one of the six teams to make it this season.
The Spartans played an Eastern Connecticut team that has received votes in the d3baseball.com national top 25 poll. Castleton dropped the first game 5-4 in 12 innings and then won the nightcap 5-4.
“It was a good day for us,” VTSU Castleton coach Ted Shipley said.
“We have got to keep working on the things we need to work on.
“I think that from top to bottom the teams in the league are all about the same. It is about which one makes the least mistakes on that day.”
Jackson Cardozo leads the Spartans with a .359 batting average and Tyler Dubreuil is hitting .328. Green Mountain Union High School graduate Jack Boyle is batting .266 and has one of the team’s five home runs.
Cardozo hit his second home run of the season on Wednesday in a 14-10 victory at Skidmore.
PERRONE OUT
Former Proctor High School baseball coach Mike Perrone is out as the head football coach at Warrensburg/Lake George.
Perrone was dismissed for an incident that occurred on the bus to an away game but was allowed to interview for the job when it opened. He felt he did well during the interview but did not get asked back for the second round of interviews.
He coached football, basketball and baseball in Warrensburg — all to great success. His record over the nine past seasons on the football field was 65-19, the best in New York State’s Section II during that time.
Perrone has received an outpouring of support on social media since people became aware that he was not asked back for the second interview.
