ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball program will look to extend the nation's longest consecutive winning seasons to 73 as it begins the quest on Feb. 27 with a pair of games in Newport News, Va. Ithaca's has produced more wins than losses each season since 1939.

The Bombers head into 2016 under the guidance of George Valesente, who is now in his 38th season with the program. Last spring, Valesente surpassed 1,000 wins at Ithaca and 1,100 for his coaching career, which dates back to 1973.

Ithaca will look to claim yet another Empire 8 Conference title at the end of this season, as the Bombers have won 12 championships since 2001. The Bombers went 20-14 last spring and won the inaugural Empire 8 Tournament in dominating fashion, outscoring their conference foes, 40-17, and batting .427 as a team in three games.

Twenty-eight players consisting of seven seniors, six juniors, six sophomores and eight freshmen make up this season's roster that will take on the 40-plus game schedule.

The offense will be guided by a pair of junior all-conference selections in Trevor Thompson and Josh Savacool.

Thompson, an ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-New York Region honoree, led the Bombers in seven categories last spring. He hit .385 on the season with 50 hits, 25 runs scored, 21 RBI, 11 doubles, three home runs and a .554 slugging percentage. The third baseman/shortstop recorded at least one hit in 30-of-34 games and notched 10-game and 12-game hitting streaks during his sophomore year.

Savacool was named to the first team by the Empire 8 after batting .325 in 2015. He finished the year with 37 hits, including 12 in the final five games of the season. Savacool also scored 19 runs, drove in 19 more and tallied 10 doubles to go along with a .948 fielding percentage at second base.

The Bombers will also look to senior Zach Cole for added offense. Cole landed on the second team as a utility player last spring after batting .299 with 16 hits, 16 RBI, eight runs scored and three triples in 30 games.

Sophomore Domenic Boresta played sparingly to start 2015, but wound up starting the final 19 games in centerfield for Ithaca. Boresta found a spot on the honorable mention squad with a .304 average on 24 hits, and 14 runs scored. He also led the team with six stolen bases.

Seniors Cameron Oathout and John Stanley, juniors Ryan Henchey and Ryan Dougherty, and sophomores Brennan McCormack and Chris Fiaschetti all appeared in at least 16 games in 2015. All of them will look to see added playing time this spring with the departure of five starters from a year ago.

The pitching staff will be anchored by seniors John Prendergast and Benji Parkes. Last year's hurlers posted a staff ERA of 3.27 with 195 strikeouts to just 90 walks.

Prendergast, a two-time All-American, is coming off a season-ending injury in 2015 and will look to pick up where he left off from 2014 when he went 9-1 with a 2.60 ERA in 69.1 inning pitched. He owns a 27-3 career record in 236 innings of work.

Parkes started eight games last season and finished the year with a 3-4 record and a 4.26 ERA. He led the team with 48 strikeouts and tossed two complete games. In his two complete starts, Parkes fanned 19 batters to just three walks and two earned runs over 17 innings.

Senior Brandon Diorio saw significant time last season, throwing 36.1 innings for a 3.22 ERA and a 2-1 record. Against Oneonta on Apr. 2, he scattered six hits over six innings with three strikeouts and gave up an unearned run for his first win of the year.

Other returning pitchers that will look to replace over 140 innings lost to graduation are senior Ryan Contegni, junior Logan Barer and sophomore Tyler Hill.

Contegni appeared in nine games last spring with a 1.89 ERA in 19 innings pitched and 16 strikeouts. Hill gave up just two hits in 6.2 innings of work and won two games. Barer threw 6.1 innings over five games in 2015.

Newcomers to the roster this season are junior Jean Germosen, sophomores Jonathan Ripic and Jason Uliano and freshmen Andrew Bailey, Matt Carey, Josh Carney, Cam Fuoti, Adam Gallagher, Jake Generali, Sam Little, Webb Little and Zach Zotolla.

After the two nine-inning games with Christopher Newport (10 a.m.) and Susquehanna (2 p.m.) on Saturday, the Bombers will take on Virginia Wesleyan on Sunday to start the season. Ithaca will then head to Long Island for three games against St. Joseph's on March 5 and 6 before traveling to California for seven contests over spring break.

A matchup with defending Division III champion and top-ranked Cortland highlights the Bombers' return to New York on March 22, and then Oswego and Oneonta come to Freeman Field on the 29th and 30th. The Bombers open up conference play at Stevens on April 2 and 3 in Hoboken, N.J.

The season culminates with the Empire 8 Conference Tournament on May 12-14. Although there is a conference tournament, the winner does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship due to provisional teams in the conference.

For a complete schedule, follow this link.