BASEBALL 2024 SEASON PREVIEW

2/23/2024 10:00:00 AM

Staten Island, NY - The College of Staten Island Baseball Team begins the 2024 season today in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with their annual Spring Training trip, and the team enters this year having undergone a great deal of change in the offseason. Most notably, the Dolphins graduated a large senior class in 2023 which will force the team's new additions to fill the vacancies left behind by the team's departing players. A constant in the program is Head Coach Michael Mauro, who returns for his sixteenth season needing just five wins to reach 300 for his career. However, Mauro added a pair of assistants in the offseason in Vinny Fiore and 2023 CSI Baseball graduate Shendi Ulaj. Also joining the team this season are 17 first-year Dolphins, but many of those players do have previous collegiate playing experience. That group will be expected to play a major role this season and will undoubtedly factor into the success of a program that is searching for its first postseason berth in the East Coast Conference. Like last season, the Dolphins will return from Myrtle Beach to host opening weekend at Staten Island University Hospital Community Park, the home of the Staten Island FerryHawks. The Dolphins will host games there on each of the first two weekends following their return from the Cal Ripken Experience before hosting their first game at the CSI Baseball Complex in mid-March. The Dolphins will also host a Breast Cancer Awareness Game on Sunday April 14th against Queens and the second iteration of Heroes Day on May 4th against Holy Family. Complicating CSI's bid for a playoff berth this year is the postseason eligibility of D'Youville University. This expands the field of eligible teams in the ECC to seven, four of which will qualify for the conference playoffs. The Dolphins enter the season optimistic they can be one of those teams and bring playoff Baseball back for a program that has been a mainstay in the conference championship picture for much of its recent history.

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