Less than a year from the program's Pacific West Conference Northern California Pod Championship and first postseason appearance, Academy of Art baseball is back and poised for success. This week, with Head Coach Dan McDermott and his staff at the helm for the eighth year, the Urban Knights approach 2022 led by a strong returning core who experienced that late May baseball now infused with a talented batch of newcomers.

The 2022 schedule begins with non-conference road games at Stanislaus State (Feb. 1), Cal State East Bay (Feb. 4-5), and Sonoma State (Feb. 11-12) before the Urban Knights host Holy Names (Feb. 19-20) on the eve of PacWest play. Those four contests start a 16-part homestand which features Concordia (Feb. 26-27), Biola (Mar. 4-5), and Azusa Pacific (Mar. 11-12). After a road series with Fresno Pacific (Mar. 18-19), ART U meets UH Hilo (Mar. 25-26) and Hawaii Pacific (Mar. 30-31) in Hawaii then returns to host Point Loma (Apr. 8-9). In the Bay Area for its final two regular season matchups, Academy of Art rematches HNU (Apr 22-23) then finishes by welcoming FPU (Apr. 29-30). To view the 2022 schedule, click here!

Over half of the 2022 ART U roster is a junior or above with catcher/first baseman Ryan Gamboa and outfielder Travis Turney making up the team's two graduate students. One of six returning Knights to play in 30 or more of the team's 36 games last season, Gamboa hit .295 while ranking third on the squad in home runs while Turney comes to the program from the University of Portland.

The Academy of Art senior class welcomes back All-PacWest Team honorees outfielder Ty Conrad and middle infielder Dominic Ruggiero. Conrad comes off a season in which he was also named ABCA/Rawlings and D2CCA All-Region Second Team after leading ART U across the board with a .338 batting average, 35 runs scored, 33 runs batted in, and four home runs. Ruggiero, whose year was highlighted by a 16-game hitting streak, finished with a .322 batting average and team-high 11 doubles. Joining their fellow seniors are first baseman Vincent Lontz plus pitchers Ryan Skillman, Cannon Secrist, Morgan Edwards, and Collin Carriger.

Returning junior tandem of outfielder Hayato Niki and middle infielder Adam Inouye are complemented by two transfers in catcher/third baseman Robbie Brue and outfielder Charles Morgan, from Contra Costa College and New Mexico Highlands respectively. Largely hitting one after the other in the batting order across 32 starts apiece, Niki finished with a .308 batting average while Inouye checked in next at .296.

Another duo to once again don the ART U red and black are sophomore catcher/first baseman Liam Rizzo and outfielder/pitcher Joel Mitchell. Pitcher Dallen Turner comes into the program as a sophomore transfer from Wagner College with an All-Region Second Team honor to his name during his time at Desert Hills High School.

Though not all new to the collegiate game, the Knights' freshman contingent includes infielder Emil Jellinek, pitcher/first baseman Joseph Anderson, infielder/outfielder Patrick Morgan, pitcher/first baseman Cole Shafer, and pitcher Brian Kraft. Pitcher Andrew McAlpin will also redshirt as a freshman.

Tuesday's Opening Day for Academy of Art baseball provides not just the first game of the Urban Knights' encore to their postseason debut, but also an opportunity to write another meaningful chapter toward the program's "hard nose" tradition.