Four Purple Knights Earn 2014 All-ECC Baseball Honors
Brian O’Keefe And Tim Bickford Named First Team All-Conference; Jesse Solar And Mike Perry Selected Second Team All-ECC
Central Islip, N.Y.-Four members of the 2014 University of Bridgeport baseball team have earned All-East Coast Conference in a vote of league coaches released on Wednesday afternoon. Junior pitcher Brian O'Keefe (Milford, Conn.) and catcher, classmate Tim Bickford (Wallingford, Conn.) have been named First Team All-ECC performers, and senior outfielder Jesse Solar (Marlton, N.J.) and junior infielder Mike Perry (East Haven, Conn.) earned spots on the Second Team All-Conference squad.
Heading into this weekend's East Coast Conference Championship Tournament, O'Keefe leads the UB pitching staff with five wins and a 2.10 earned run average in 12 appearances and 11 starts with four complete games and two shutouts so far this season. In 81.1 innings pitched, Brian has allowed only 68 hits while striking out 79 and walking only 16.
Bickford possesses a .309 batting average with a team leading 27 run batted in two home runs so far in 2014. He also leads the Purple Knights in hits with 46 and doubles with 10. Tim has also thrown out 23 base stealers so far this year.
Solar heads into the ECC Championship Tournament with a .266 batting average and 18 runs batted in plus a conference-leading 24 stolen bases. An outstanding fielder, Jesse has handled 90 chances in the outfield without making an error so far this season.
A newcomer to the program this year, Perry excelled at third base and shortstop for UB in 2014 batting .297 with runs batted in. Mike leads Bridgeport on on-base percentage so this season at .442, having drawn a team-leading 24 bases on balls to go with 38 base hits.
The University of Bridgeport baseball team will open play in the 2014 East Coast Conference Championship Tournament at 12 noon on Thursday against top-seed and host Dowling College.