ITHACA, N.Y.- The Ithaca College baseball team is set to start their 2026 season this weekend on the road against the United States Merchant Marine Academy. The Bombers are coming off a dominant season in which they finished 26-15 overall, 16-5 in conference play, and 9-2 at home. Their 2025 season came to an end in the Liberty League Championship in which they lost back-to-back games against RPI.

Heading into the season, the Bombers will be led by head coach David Valesente for his seventh year at the helm on South Hill. He will be assisted by Cooper Belyea and Ben Landis. 

Ithaca will start their season off with 13 straight road games all over the East Coast, with games being played in New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The Bombers will also have four double-headers during that stretch.  

"It's not a foreign concept for us, we have opened up several years as road warriors as our guys have embraced in terms of playing on the road and I think any opportunity for us to leave campus and get out of the indoor facility and compete against another team is really exciting," said Valesente. "Our guys embrace it, and it does not matter where we are playing, we are just happy to be competing and having fun while we are doing it."

The Bombers are returning 18 total upperclassmen this year between the junior and the seniors. While they will also have 10 sophomores returning to the roster, plus numerous first-years looking to make an impact on the opening day roster.

"We have a shortstop Zachary Barron that has done a nice job, plus Merrick Sullivan and Liam Tiernan are all freshman infielders, Ben Rasponti is a catcher we are excited about after graduating a couple of catchers last year" said Valesente. "Our outfield is pretty fresh as well, we graduated three starting outfielders, we have Sheldon Jay Walker III, who is a returning sophomore who got some time last year, Anthony Mestre played football in the spring who we are excited about, he's a dual athlete who grew up playing baseball down in Florida."

This will provide the depth the Bombers will look for with their long road trip to start the season, alongside the 10 doubleheaders on the schedule for the season. Ithaca also has nationally ranked No. 13 SUNY Cortland on their schedule plus two games against (RV) Arcadia University and a game against (RV) SUNY Brockport.

"We are really excited to have Jack Picozzi back. After earning pitcher of the year, it is a new year, new slate, so he is going to have to do it again," stated Valesente. "We hold him to a high standard in terms of being our number one. He has made really nice strides in continuing to develop as our top pitcher." 

Picozzi had the second most innings pitched last season with 59.0; he started all 11 games that he appeared in which was the most starts on the team. He pitched the only two complete games last year for the Bombers. While also pitching to a 3.81 ERA and had a team best 65 strikeouts. Joining Picozzi on the mound will be Reed Bailey and Jack Colyer. Bailey appeared in seven games last year, starting five of them, totaling 28.0 innings pitched. He struck out 23 batters and had a 3.86 ERA. Colyer led the team with six wins last season, pitching 34.2 innings, and appearing in 16 games which is the most amongst returning players.

"Camden Laney will be back in the heart of our lineup, Ethan Fantel, our first baseman, had a really nice freshman campaign. Matt Curtis will be back as a veteran senior infielder, second baseman, designated hitter" said Valesente. 

The Bombers offense fired on all cylinders last year with Laney batting .344, and he also struck the most home runs amongst returning players. Fantel led the team with a .371 batting average, plus he had the third best OPS in the Liberty League at 1.113, highest amongst returning Liberty League players. Meanwhile, Curtis batted .302 with 24 RBIs for the Bombers last season.

Ithaca will have a lot of role players competing for spots in the lineup this year with guys like Ethan Daddabbo, Owen Callahan, and Lucas Orlovitz who all saw some time last year and will "have strong opportunities to step up and develop big roles as a core group of leaders and returners" according to Valesente.

Prior to last year the Bombers had won three-straight Liberty League, earning themselves three consecutive bids to the NCAA tournament, competing at the highest level.

"Our goals and expectations don't change every year; we hold our guys to a really high standard. We want to compete at the top level in the conference, the top level regionally, and at the top level in the country" said Valesente.

The Bombers are set to start their season on the road this weekend with back-to-back double headers against the United States Merchant Marine Academy and against St. Joseph's University Long Island.
 

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