SEASON PREVIEW: No. 2/3 Baseball Toes The Rubber This Weekend At LaGrange
LAGRANGE, Ga. — The No. 2/3 nationally ranked Endicott baseball team takes the field for the first time in 2026 this weekend in LaGrange, Ga. The Gulls open up against Mississippi University for Women (MUW) on Friday, February 20 in a doubleheader (2/5:30 PM) before facing host team LaGrange on Sunday in a 12 PM matchup. Here's an inside look at the Gulls' upcoming season.
FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- This year's squad received the highest ever preseason ranking in the D3baseball.com Preseason Poll. The No. 2 overall national ranking surpassed last season's No. 3 preseason ranking, the previous best. The Gulls were also ranked No. 3 in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) poll, which marks their second-highest ever preseason ranking from that organization.
- Right-handed pitcher Evan Scully (Maynard, Mass.) gets the ball in game one on Friday afternoon. The senior was named a D3baseball.com Preseason First Team All-American, the organization announced in January. Last season, Scully earned a spot on ABCA's All-America Third Team, and D3baseball.com's All-America Fourth Team. Scully will be followed in the rotation by Brady Stuart (Maynard, Mass.) and Matt Pappalardo (Pelham, N.H.) for games two and three, respectively.
- Head coach Bryan Haley ushers in a total of 22 newcomers to this year's team, 19 of which are freshmen and three are transfers.
- Senior shortstop TJ Liponis (Scarborough, Maine) was named the captain of the 2026 squad. Liponis enters his senior year with 154 career games played. Among other impressive career feats, he is currently ranked fourth all-time in program history with 400 assists from the shortstop position.
- Kyle Grabowski (Westfield, Mass.) returns to the middle of Coach Haley's lineup for another season. The graduate student is among the top of the program's career leaderboards in many stat categories, including fifth all-time in career RBI (143), eighth in at-bats (595), ninth in home runs (19) and total bases (297), and 10th in hits (189) and doubles (39).
FIVE GAMES TO WATCH
- MUW, 2/20/26 (2/5:30 PM - Season-Opener; LaGrange, Ga.)
- No. 4/11 Johns Hopkins, 3/15/26 (2 PM - Auburndale, Fla.)
- No. 8/8 Rowan, 3/20/26 (10 AM - Winter Haven, Fla.)
- Western New England, 4/4/26 (12/3 PM - Beverly, Mass.)
- UMass. Boston, 5/3/26 (1 PM - Senior Day; Beverly, Mass.)
WHAT'S NEXT
No. 2/3 Endicott takes on MUW this Friday, February 20, for a doubleheader at 2 and 5:30 PM down in LaGrange, Ga.
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(Photo Credit - Jonah Bean '28)