Newburgh, N.Y. - The Mount Saint Mary College Baseball team will open the 2016 schedule this weekend with a three game non-conference series at St. Mary's (Md.). Head Coach Steve Sosler will begin his seventh season at the helm of the Knights on Saturday with live stats available for all three contests for those who cannot attend the games.

Mount Saint Mary posted an 11-18 overall record in 2015 and a 6-8 against league opponents, narrowly missing the four team conference tournament. The Knights hit .238 as a team in 2015 and posted a 4.95 team earned run average.

Infield
Mount Saint Mary returns five players infielders from last season and will turn to a pair of newcomers for contributions in 2016. Sophomore Louie Rivera (Linden, N.J.) appeared in 18 games for the Knights as a freshman and hit .258 with Jimmy Papineau (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.), Blake Keenan (Fishkill, N.Y.) and Rob Peccerillo (Staten Island, N.Y.) combining for 65 games played in 2015. Albert Estwick Jr. (East Elmhurst, N.Y.) returns in 2016 after seeing time in eight games in 2015.

In addition to a solid group of returning players, Sosler and the Knights will look for impact from newcomers Tom Huvane (Eastchester, N.Y.) and Charles Todd (Warwick, N.Y.).

Outfield
Senior Matt Cahill (Ronkonkoma, N.Y) is the Mount's top returning offensive player after posting a .356 batting average last season in a team-high 104 at-bats. Cahill also recorded team-highs in hits (37), runs (29), doubles (10), slugging percentage (.471) and stolen bases (15).

The Knights welcome back fellow senior Kristopher Fragomeni (Beacon, N.Y) who appeared in 20 games in the outfield as a junior. Fragomeni hit .308 for the Mount in 2015 and led the team with seven hit by pitch and is the top returning player in RBI with 14.

The Knights will look for increased production from Louie DeAngelis (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who appeared in 21 games in 2015 and hit .244 as well as Estwick and Rivera who can also see time in the outfield in 2016.

Newcomer Jasper Bradley (Hampton Bays, N.Y.) will look to step in and see time for the Knights as a freshman this season.

Catcher
Mount Saint Mary will carry four catchers in 2016 with Ryan Hayes (Robbinsville, N.J.) and Tyler Swartz (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) returning from last year's squad. Hayes started in 11 games behind the plate for the Knights as a freshman, hitting .237. Swartz saw time in five games, including one start for the Knights as a freshman.

The Knights will add freshman Nicholas Terzulli (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and junior transfer Vincenzo Pepe (Middletown, N.Y.) to the catching corps. in 2016.

Pitcher
The Knights return 11 primary pitchers this season, including senior Sean Betterly (East Meadow, N.Y.) who posted a 0.98 earned run average in 18.1 innings pitched. Kevin Duffy (Wallingford, Conn.) worked 24.1 innings and posted a 3.70 earned run average and Chris Wolfe (Beacon, N.Y.) posted team-highs in innings pitched (44.2) and strikeouts (25) in nine appearances, including seven starts.

The Knights will also look to James McCleary (Floral Park, N.Y.), Joe Pillitteri (Wallkill, N.Y.), Ryan Turton (Westbury, N.Y.), Logan Kurtz (Gavsevoort, N.Y.), Joey Pugliese (Highland, N.Y.), David Hobbs (East Rockaway, N.Y.), Stephan Sookdeo (Carmel, N.Y.) and Riley Stong (Newburgh, N.Y.) for quality innings in 2016.

The talented group of newcomers to the mound in 2016 include: Christopher Ruggiero (Newburgh, N.Y.), Christian Spano (Mahopac, N.Y.) and Nick Peterson (Stormville, N.Y.).

The Schedule
Following this weekend's series in Maryland, the Knights are scheduled to play their next six games at home. The home slate is set to open with a doubleheader against Baruch on February 28 at Dutchess Stadium and the home stand will continue with single games against Brockport (3/4) and Albertus Magnus (3.5) before wrapping up with a twinbill against New Paltz on March 12.

The Knights will play six games in Fort Myers, Fla. as part of the Gene Cusic Classic and will open the league schedule on April 3 against Yeshiva. In addition to the Maccabees, the Mount will play home league sets with Maritime (4/23) and Farmingdale State (4/24).

The six team Skyline Conference Tournament is set to begin on May 4 and will continue with a double elimination format May 6-8.

Preseason Poll
Mount Saint Mary has been picked to finish the 2016 season in sixth place according to the Preseason Poll released on Friday afternoon. The Knights picked up 29 points in the rankings voted on by the league's nine head coaches.

Old Westbury is forecast to repeat as the conference champion in 2016 after earning 63 points and seven first place nods. St. Joseph's-L.I. ranks second according to the coaches with 56 tallies and one first place vote and is followed by Farmingdale State with 51 points and a single first place vote.

The remainder of the league ranks as follows: Maritime (39), St. Joseph's-Brooklyn (37), the Knights (29), Purchase (22), Mount Saint Vincent (19) and Yeshiva (8).

Mount Saint Mary's season is scheduled to open with an 11:00 a.m. first pitch on Saturday and will continue with an 11:00 first pitch to close out the series on Sunday.

Follow the Knights on Twitter@MSMCKnights and on Flickr