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ST. LOUIS CARDINALS SELECT A PAIR OF SETTERS IN 2008 MLB DRAFT

RIGOLI AND CAWLEY JOIN FORMER TEAMMATE MATT ARBURR WITH THE CARDINALS



Information Provided By Pace Sports Information



PLEASANTVILLE, NY – Senior catcher Jack Cawley (Bronx, NY/Iona Prep) and junior infielder Matt Rigoli (Parsippany, NJ/Parsippany) are bound for professional baseball as both were selected by the Saint Louis Cardinals in the 2008 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.

The pair joins former teammate Matt Arburr, who was selected by the Cardinals in the 2007 MLB Draft. It marks the third consecutive year and the fifth time in the last seven years that Head Coach Henry Manning had players drafted into Major League Baseball. Rigoli was selected with the 635th pick in the 21st Round, while Cawley went at pick 1025 in Round 34 to the Cardinals.

Cawley, the 2008 Pace Male Athlete of the Year, had a standout senior campaign starting in all 54 games this season for Pace, topping the team in batting average (.333), slugging percentage (.486), on base percentage (.422), hits (70), RBI (41), runs scored (39), home runs (6), total bases (102), walks (31) and stolen bases (20). In the NE-10, Cawley ranked seventh in on base percentage, tied for seventh in homeruns and walks, tied for ninth in RBI and tied for fifth in stolen bases. Cawley ended his stellar four year career ranked third all-time at Pace in hits (221), fifth all-time in doubles (43), tied for eighth in triples (6), 11th in RBI (113), ninth in runs scored (135), seventh in walks (83) and fourth in stolen bases (72). Cawley was a back-to-back First Team All Northeast-10 selection, while also garnering National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and ABCA/Rawlings Division II All-Northeast Region First Team honors and was named to the Daktronics All-Region Second Team in 2008.

In two seasons with Pace, Rigoli was a key member of the Setter infield, playing both first and third base. In a Pace uniform, Rigoli finished with a .283 batting average, along with two homeruns, 34 RBIs, 83 hits, 16 doubles and scored 46 runs. In 2008, Rigoli posted a .295 batting average good fifth on the team, while ranking third in runs with 30 and hits with 54.

Rigoli and Cawley make it a total of nine players drafted under Coach Manning's eight-year tenure joining last year’s selection Arburr (St. Louis Cardinals/ 17th Round- 532nd overall) and 2006 selections Earl Oakes (Oakland A's/ 24th Round - 728th overall), David Qualben (Houston Astros/7th Round - 219th Overall), Bryan Hallberg (Houston Astros/12th Round - 369th overall) and Matt Reilly (Los Angeles Angels/27th Round - 822nd overall). Patrick Stanley (Colorado Rockies '04) and current member of the Atlantic League’s Newark Bears along with Mike Bohlander (Chicago White Sox '02) are the other Setters to be taken in the draft. Manning, a Bergen County native and former Pace standout, played professionally for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox minor league affiliates before enjoying several years of managerial experience on the minor league level.

The Pace University baseball team finished with 31-23 overall record and reached the final four of the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament for a second consecutive season.