WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley baseball team's 2026 Northeast 10 season begins when the Falcons head to Franklin Pierce for a three-game series, March 14-15. Saturday's doubleheader starts at 12 p.m.
Great expectations
Before the season started, NE10 coaches picked Bentley as the favorite to win the conference title this spring. The 8-5 Falcons trail Southern New Hampshire by half a game for the conference's best overall record. Bentley is ranked No. 3 in the region by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and the Falcons are receiving votes in the national poll.
Slug it out
Bentley's bats have been absolutely mashing – the team has 23 home runs already, whereas the next best total in the NE10 is eight homers (American International, Southern Connecticut). The Falcons also lead the conference in hitting (.312), on-base percentage (.422), slugging (.535), runs (120), and RBI (109).
Home run race
The NE10 home run race so far is between a couple of graduate student Falcons –
Stan DeMartinis III and
Jared Berardino. DeMartinis crushed his conference-leading seventh home run of the season at Palm Beach Atlantic (March 11), and Berardino enters the weekend with six dingers.
Heath raises the bar
Sophomore
Curt Heath enters the weekend as the conference's leading hitter with a .512 batting average (22-for-43).
Run home, Pappas
Nick Pappas has reached base 24 times via hit or walk this season, and he has scored a conference-leading 19 runs thus far.
A jolt at the top of lineup
Shortstop and leadoff hitter
Tommy Bolton has already drawn 15 walks this season, which leads the NE10 by four. Bolton has also been hit by a pitch four times. Last year, Bolton's 43 walks stood as the second-best total in the conference.
Sam I am
Graduate transfer
Sam Belliveau is already making a big impact for Bentley. Among all NE10 pitchers with at least 10.0 innings, Belliveau's 2.08 ERA ranks fourth, and his 21 strikeouts also rank fourth. Belliveau earned NE10 Pitcher of the Week after making his first start of the season against Bridgeport (Feb. 21). Belliveau allowed just two earned runs through six innings. He struck out nine and walked none in the outing.
Lineup depth
Like fellow classmate
Curt Heath, sophomore centerfielder
David VanderZouwen has been hitting in the latter half of the lineup. Still, VanderZouwen has three homers, 15 RBI, and a .383 batting average while starting all 13 games so far.
Scouting Franklin Pierce (2-6)
The Ravens are hitting just .210 as a team through eight games, but they play pretty clean defensively. The team's .970 fielding percentage (9 errors) is the second-best in the NE10. Rafael Rodriguez Rosa leads the team in home runs (3) and RBI (11). Among Ravens with at least 15 plate appearances, Dillon Thomas' .333 batting averages paces Franklin Pierce. The Ravens were picked by conference coaches to finish third in the NE10 this season.
