By Dylan Butler
Fresh Meadows native Jonathan Lewis capped a brilliant freshman season at Stony Brook by being named the America East Rookie of the Year, the league announced last Thursday.
A year removed from being the most dominant pitcher in the PSAL at Francis Lewis, the 6-foot-1 righty has exceeded expectations at Stony Brook this year. He is 9-3 with a 3.50 earned run average and 90 strikeouts — all team highs.
His nine wins ties the highest single season total in Stony Brook history with Drew McDowell, who also had nine wins in 1994. His 90 strikeouts is good for third all-time. Lewis pitched 87.2 innings, third all-time in a single season.
Lewis was twice named Rookie of the Week and Pitcher of the Week by the America East conference. He was also selected to the All-Rookie team.
In their first year in the America East conference, the Seawolves made the tournament championships and defeated top-seeded Maine, 16-4, in the first round. Lewis was on the mound and picked up the win, allowing four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and two walks in eight innings.
In the win, former Archbishop Molloy catcher Ed Kull had an RBI in the fifth inning.
SJU’s Bilezikjian garners Big East honors
St. John’s senior outfielder Charlie Bilezikjian was named to the first-team All-Big East baseball team, it was announced last week at the conference’s tournament banquet.
He is the lone St. John’s player honored by the Big East and the first to be named to the first team since Mike Niksa in 2000.
Bilezikjian finished the season batting .347, second on the team, while leading the team in eight different offensive categories. He led the team in runs (49), triples (3), home runs (11), RBIs (49), total bases (114), slugging percentage (.648), walks (50), and on-base percentage (.494). In addition he finished second in its (61), doubles (4) and in stolen bases (15).
He was also walked 30 times in conference games, a new Big East record.
Bilezikjian graduates from St. John’s ranking in the top-10 in 11 difference categories. A career .340 hitter, he ranks third all-time in hits (232) and runs scored (172), second in doubles (50) and total bases (353), fourth in walks (122) and RBIs (140), fifth in stolen base percentage (.841) and tied for fifth in home runs (17), sixth in games played (193) and stolen bases (69) and eighth in at-bats (683).
An All-Big East selection as a freshman in 1999, Bilezikjian was a 10th round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves that year. He could be a selection in this year’s draft, scheduled to begin on June 6.
McCants caps stellar year at Northeastern
Rego Park native Bryan McCants, a junior at Northeastern, recently completed an excellent outdoor track season. The Archbishop Molloy grad competed in the hurdles and the middle distance events.
McCants helped the Huskies win their second-straight America East championship and their first New England championship since 1992, earlier this month.
At the America East championships, McCants continued his dominance of the 400 intermediate hurdles (53.41), winning the race for third straight year. He took third in the 110 high hurdles and ran on the second-place 4 x 400.
At the New England championship, McCants won the 400 hurdles in a personal record time of 51.75. He also took sixth in the 110 hurdles and ran on the fourth-place 4 x 400 relay team.
At the IC4A, where Northeastern placed seventh, McCants was fifth in the 400 hurdles (52.13) and scored four of the Huskies 31 points at the meet.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
