May 6, 2002

Poughkeepsie, NY - Marist College senior baseball player Anthony Bocchino (Brooklyn, NY) was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) player of the Week, the league office announced this afternoon. The honor is the third of the year for Bocchino, and the seventh time in as many weeks that a Marist player has garnered a MAAC weekly award.

A graduate of Xaverian High School, Bocchino hit .619 over the course of six games for the Red Foxes this week, going 13-21 at the plate. He had four base hits in three of the Red Foxes games, and Marist won each game in which he had a hit this week (4-2). Against LeMoyne on Sunday, the outfielder went 4-5 with two doubles in an 11-0 win, moving the Red Foxes into a first place tie in the MAAC. He had six extra base hits on the week, with three doubles, two homeruns and a triple. He scored eight runs during the week and drove in eight more. Over the six games he slugged 1.143 and reached base 71.4 percent of the time. Perhaps most impressively is the fact that Bocchino walked six times and did not strike out a single time.

Bocchino, the MAAC Pre-Season Player of the Year, leads the Red Foxes and the MAAC in nearly every offensive category, highlighted by his .462 batting average. He has 73 base hits on the year, tops in the MAAC, with 36 of them being for extra base hits. Bocchino is third in the MAAC with eight homers, but ranks first with his 22 doubles and six triples. He is slugging a conference best .829, and has stolen 13 of the 14 bases he has tried for on the year.

In MAAC games Bocchino is hitting .481 with 24 RBI and 22 extra base hits. He is perfect in stolen bases, 10-10 and defensively, with no errors in 30 chances. He reaches base 56.2 percent of the time in league play, only striking out six times in 79 at-bats, walking 14 times and being hit by two pitches.

The all-time hits leader at Marist, Bocchino now has 315 for his career and is hitting .411 for his career. He also is the all-time leader at Marist in homeruns, 22, triples, 21, doubles, 72, and RBI, 210. Bocchino has 495 total bases during his Marist career, a school record, and a school record .646 career slugging percentage.

Bocchino has led the Red Foxes to a 31-11 overall record, the fastest Marist has ever reached the 30-win plateau, and a 17-4 record in MAAC play. The Red Foxes look to reach the school record for wins in a season, 33, this weekend, hosting Siena College, May 11-12th, in a three-game set. The games will be played at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, NY. A double-header will begin Saturday at 3:00 pm, with a single game being played on Sunday at 1:00 pm.