| Members: Davidson, Dayton, Fordham, George Mason, George Washington, La Salle, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Joseph’s, Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure, Virginia Commonwealth. |
| Team to beat: Saint Louis. The Billikens have won the regular season four straight seasons but have only gone to regionals once in that span, in 2013. They should have the league’s top pitching staff with righthanders Matt Eckelman (limited to 14 innings last year by an arm strain) and Zach Girrens (7-1, 4.20, 71 innings, 75 strikeouts) and lefthander Josh Moore (4-4, 4.79). Saint Louis also returns several keys to the A-10’s highest-scoring offense from 2015, including junior center fielder Michael Bozarth (.382/.460/.572, 18 stolen bases) and first baseman Braxton Martinez (.314/.391/.469). |
| Player of the Year: Michael Bozarth, of, Saint Louis. He’s shown a power-speed combination and hit six homers in just 14 A-10 games last spring while leading the league in OPS (1.032). |
| Pitcher of the Year: Tyler Wilson, lhp, Rhode Island. As a freshman, Wilson led the league in opponents average (.183 in league games), leaning on a low-90s fastball and hard slider. |
| Freshman of the Year: Layne Looney, rhp, Richmond. Though he’s smallish at 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, Looney has a big arm, having reached 94 mph with his fastball. He could close for the Spiders. |
| Notable Storylines: Baseball in Richmond is heating up. Virginia Commonwealth won the league tournament as the No. 5 seed, its first regional trip in five years, then stormed through the Dallas Regional to make it to supers, losing at Miami. The Rams lost seven seniors from a pitching staff that ranked 13th nationally in ERA (2.92) and retooled the rotation with junior-college transfers in lefthander Brooks Vial (Delgado, La., CC) and righthander Matt Oxner (Gavilan, Calif., JC) around sophomore righthander Sean Thompson (6-3, 3.48). The Rams’ offense returns many key contributors, particularly in the outfield with senior on-base machines James Bunn (.407 OBP) and Jimmy Kerrigan (.432), who both have good speed, and true burner junior center fielder Logan Farrar (.307/.392/.423), the team’s top prospect… Meanwhile, cross-town rival Richmond also lost plenty of pitching, more than 300 innings worth, but in his third season with the Spiders, coach Tracy Woodson likes his club’s returning offensive pieces. The four returning senior starters are led by shortstop Tyler Beckwith (.258/.344/.442, 7 home runs, 10 stolen bases), a plus runner and fine athlete with an inconsistent bat, and center fielder Michael Morman (.389/.440/.611, 7 homers), the team’s top hitter. League coaches voted Morman the Atlantic-10’s Best Pure Hitter in BA’s Best Tools survey… Rhode Island doubled its win total from 2014 to 2015 in coach Raphael Cerrato’s first season. The Rams did it building around strong defense and a pair of freshmen who return as the team’s stars as sophomores. Draft-eligible second baseman Chris Hess (.326/.398/.481) is a table-settler with good gap power and speed, while lefthander Tyler Wilson (6-3, 2.16) emerged as the league’s best prospect. |
| Tournament : Seven teams, May 25-28, Houlihan Park, Bronx, N.Y. |
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