When the Binghamton Rumble Ponies came to Somerset for a week of games against the Patriots, they brought a 68-32 record and one of Minor League Baseball’s best rosters with them. With one of baseball’s top pitching prospects in Jonah Tong and a lineup featuring Jett Williams, Carson Benge, and Ryan Clifford, Binghamton was a tough matchup for any Double-A pitcher. Despite some recent struggles, they went into Somerset with Tong on the mound and a lineup ready to mash. Instead, they came out on the wrong end of a marquee pitching matchup.
Tong went up against Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, a 21-year-old right-hander in the midst of a breakout season with the Yankees organization. Since being promoted to Somerset, Rodriguez-Cruz had recorded quality starts in all three of his appearances and was fresh off of tossing six shutout innings in his last start. The matchup against Tong did not disappoint. Neither pitcher allowed a run, and both struck out eight batters while walking two. The difference in the matchup was longevity, and Rodriguez-Cruz won that battle by lasting seven innings to Tong’s five. The Patriots broke the score open in the bottom of the seventh, earning Rodriguez-Cruz the victory in a 3-2 win.
It was a dominant performance from the young starter against a tough lineup, and he backed it up by doing the exact same thing again on Sunday. Rodriguez-Cruz faced off against Tong for the second time in a week, and this time he threw six more shutout innings with seven strikeouts. In total, he pitched 13 innings against Binghamton with 15 strikeouts, 5 walks, 5 hits, and not a single run allowed. It was a rude sendoff for Tong, Williams, Benge, and Clifford, who were all promoted to Triple-A immediately following the series, but it was exactly what the Yankees wanted to see from a prospect who’s quickly becoming one of the most promising young starters in the organization.
Rodriguez-Cruz spent most of this season at High-A with the Renegades, where he was part of a rotation that also included Carlos Lagrange and 2024 draft picks Ben Hess and Bryce Cunningham. The foursome dominated the first couple months of the season and all saw their prospect stock rise significantly at the same time. Cunningham has been on the IL for over two months now, but the other three pitchers have all been promoted to Double-A where they continue to develop and look like future members of a big-league rotation.
The rise of these pitchers and the ascent of Cam Schlittler into the Yankees’ rotation has made it quite the year for the organization’s pitching development, and arguably Rodriguez-Cruz has been the most promising arm in a crop of standout pitchers. He recorded a 2.26 ERA in 83 innings in High-A with a 29% strikeout rate, and has been even better since the promotion to Double-A with a 1.41 ERA in 32 innings. He’s not missing quite as many bats in Somerset with a 24.4% strikeout rate, but he’s also seen his walk rate go from 10.9% to 6.5%. In total, Rodriguez-Cruz has a 2.03 ERA on the season in a career-high 115.2 innings.
Rodriguez-Cruz was acquired in a trade with the Red Sox last offseason for catcher Carlos Narvaez. Anytime the Yankees trade with their biggest rival it creates commotion among the two fanbases, and a hot start to the season for the 26-year-old Narvaez put an added layer of pressure on Rodriguez-Cruz to justify his acquisition. However, recent months have made the victory laps in Boston seem a bit premature. Narvaez has cooled down significantly and Rodriguez-Cruz has caught fire during that same stretch, earning a much-deserved promotion. Now he’s gone three consecutive starts without allowing a run, and could even be knocking on the door of Triple-A Scranton for a brief stint at the highest level of the minors before the season ends.
The recent update to MLB Pipeline’s prospect rankings placed Rodriguez-Cruz at #6 within the Yankees organization, but he’s still outside the overall Top 100. Here’s what they wrote about his arsenal: “Rodriguez’s fastball sat at 91-95 mph in 2023 before jumping to 93-96 and topping out at 98 last season, featuring some arm-side run and carry. His slider got stronger as well, parking in the mid-80s with improved depth and becoming his best secondary offering. His upper-70s curveball with similar shape and upper-80s splitter/changeup give him a pair of average pitches to round out his repertoire.” He doesn’t have the most electric stuff in the organization, but he’s made noticeable strides in each of his professional seasons and at age 21 will continue to develop physically and mentally on the mound. Taking into account his 6-foot-3 frame and ability to work deep into games, Rodriguez-Cruz checks a lot of boxes for a future big-league starter.
What’s next for the young right-hander? Rodriguez-Cruz again occupies a spot in the same rotation as Lagrange and the recently promoted Hess, but now it’s at a whole new level. 15 departures across various levels of the organization required a lot of movement among the remaining prospects, and the fact that the Yankees held onto their top prospects at such an active trade deadline is a strong indication of how they feel about these young players. The next step is to see if they keep Rodriguez-Cruz at Double-A for the rest of the season, or if they decide to push him even further and send him to Scranton for his toughest challenge yet.
When watching St. Thomas More’s volleyball team play, it’s hard not to notice Eleanor Guidry.
As the Cougars’ libero, Guidry wears a different uniform color than her teammates, but that’s not the only reason the defensive specialist stands out.
Guidry often makes difficult digs look routine and has established herself as the anchor of the Cougars’ defense.
“She’s so consistent and she has great range,” coach Jessica Burke said of the 5-foot-6 senior. “She has great platform awareness, can put the ball and manipulate the ball how she wants. She takes up a lot of space in serve-receive and defense, so that helped take the pressure off some of our kids that were new to the passing unit.”
Guidry finished last season with 651 digs, 42 aces, 42 assists and a 2.23 pass rating on 802 attempts this past season.
“El makes the hard things look easy and that’s the mark of a really good player,” Burke said. “She’s not flashy. She doesn’t do more than she needs to do. She reads extremely well, so she is in the right place at the right time. She has great range, so if she is hitting the floor then she is making a big play. It’s a play that most liberos wouldn’t even get to.”
In 2025, Guidry helped lead the Cougars to a 41-5 record and a fifth consecutive Division II state championship. For her efforts, she was named the Acadiana Advocate volleyball team’s Most Valuable Player.
“I think it is well deserved,” Burke said. “This kid works so hard all of the time. She takes zero days off and she has zero quit. Anything I ask her to do, she does it. Any adjustments I ask her to make, she makes them. It’s hard sometimes for people to recognize the libero because they’re just first contact. They don’t get the big kill or they’re not running the offense as a setter, but they’re so integral to a great team.”
COMMERCE – East Texas A&M University men’s basketball player Josh Taylor and women’s basketball player Nina Horvath are this week’s Dixie Turman State Farm Agency Student-Athletes of the Week.
Taylor (Wollongong, Australia) appeared in all three games last week, averaging 5.7 points and 2.7 rebounds, which included 17 points and six rebounds off the bench at Nicholls. The Lions play at New Orleans on Monday before returning home to host UTRGV on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Horvath (Oberwart, Austria) guided the Lions to a 2-1 week, starting all three games and averaging 12 points per game as well as 2.3 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game. In the win at New Orleans, she led all scorers with 24 points. The Lion women play both their games at home this week, hosting A&M-Corpus Christi for Faculty & Staff Appreciation Day on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. and UTRGV on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The Dixie Turman State Farm Agency Student-Athletes of the Week is awarded by Lion Athletics each week during the academic year in partnership with Dixie Turman State Farm Agency.
2025-26 DIXIE TURMAN STATE FARM STUDENT-ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
The second event of 2026 at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center brought a crowd and a vibe not seen or heard since the last time Hawaii men’s volleyball took center stage.
The second-ranked Rainbow Warriors opened the season in front of a raucous crowd of 5,685 that still sounded like it was celebrating the new year as they watched Hawaii sweep New Jersey Institute of Technology 25-11, 25-16, 25-14 on Friday night.
Nine months after beating Long Beach State for the Big West championship, which is the last time the arena drew a crowd this big for a UH sporting event, Hawaii returned to its home floor with five of its seven starters back from a run to the national semifinals.
Sophomore Kristian Titriyski, who missed the final eight matches of his freshman season with an ankle injury, led Hawaii with 12 kills.
All five starting pins and middles hit .455 or better for the match as UH hit .517 as a team and had 13 1/2 blocks.
“We didn’t get to practice in here until today. You could tell the guys had a lot of extra energy,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “This is something that we will never take for granted. So appreciative when (the fans) are taking the time and spending the money to come out and here and support us and we are doing everything we can to put on a good show and win matches.”
Sophomore Adrien Roure, who was an AVCA first-team All-American as a freshman, hit .538 with eight kills in two swings.
Louis Sakanoko, one of two third-year starters, had four kills in eight swings and sophomore middle transfer Trevell Jordan also had four kills with six blocks.
Justin Todd, who has played both in the middle and on the outside, switched back to middle during practice this week and put down all three of his kill attempts before resting in the third set.
Junior setter Tread Rosenthal, the floor captain, tied a career high with eight blocks and had 26 assists, three digs and two kills, including the match-ender after 95 minutes.
“It was impressive,” Wade said. “Two hitting errors in two sets and four errors total will get it done. Overall pretty efficient dominant performance and stoked to see the guys play that well.”
Rosenthal had two aces during Hawaii’s 5-0 run to start the match, setting the tone for what would be a quick night.
Hawaii hit .556 in the opening set with only one error and had three aces, with one from Titriyski that was initially ruled out but called in after a challenge that last about 15 seconds.
Hawaii continued its offensive efficiency in the second set, again hitting over .500 to control the set.
A triple block by Titriyski, Sakanoko and Todd ended the set and was the 10th for Hawaii, while the Highlanders had yet to record a block and were hitting .059.
UH made changes to the lineup in the third set, bringing in sophomores Ofeck Hazan in the middle and Finn Kearney on the outside.
Hawaii showed little drop-off and had a chance to hit over .500 in all three sets until it needed four swings to end match point.
“They were playing smart, staying high, not letting the ball go down to their level, and even when it was a bad set, they kept it in play and just kept playing,” Rosenthal said of his teammates. “I think our guys showed that they could play smart and pretty efficient.”
The Rainbow Warriors played without sophomore opposite Kainoa Wade and freshman middle Roman Payne, who are both injured.
Andre Aleixo had 10 kills to lead the Highlanders, who finished the match without a block.
RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Manhattan Jaspers women’s basketball team (1-12, 1-3 MAAC), despite a combined 32 from Colette Mulderig (18) and Hana Mühl (14), fell to the Red Foxes of Marist (5-9, 2-2 MAAC) by a final score of 62-57 inside Draddy Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Brianna Davis and Mühl both knocked down the first pair of buckets from inside in the first few minutes.
Four free throws courtesy of Elisa Solé Sanchez and Mulderig upped the advantage to five points.
Autumn Taylor’s feed to Mulderig in the paint gave her four on the day and a six point lead for the Jaspers, before ending the quarter at four.
Marist jumped back on top following seven unanswered points, a run starting in the first and culminating at the start of the second frame.
Mulderig was granted the opportunity at a three point play following her and-one layup in the paint, extending her point total to seven.
Davis drove inside for a layup with under a minute to go, eventually being the last bucket of the half, as Manhattan held a three point advantage going into the locker room.
The Red Foxes came out of the break on a mission, scoring the first six points forcing a Green and White timeout.
Kristina Juric tacked on two field goals out of the media timeout, giving the Jaspers the lead once more.
Davis and Mulderig beared the scoring load down the stretch of the third frame, combining for seven in the final four minutes to knot things up at the end of the quarter.
It was another hot start for the visitors to start the fourth, going up six within three minutes.
Solé Sanchez tallied two layups at the five minute mark to cut the margin down to two.
Mulderig went one-for-two from the stripe with 1:13 remaining, putting the hosts within reach at one point.
Manhattan got outscored 6-2 in the final minute, with the Red Foxes holding on 62-57.
STATS AND NOTES
Graduate forward Colette Mulderig led the way in scoring with 18 points on seven-for-14 shooting, as well as seven rebounds and four blocks.
Senior guard Hana Mühl accumulated 14 on the scoreboard, the third time she’s hit that number on the season. In addition, the Croatia native sunk all six of her free throw attempts for a new season-high.
Senior guard Brianna Davis spread the rock around with four assists, while swiping it away on the defensive end for three steals.
Junior forward Kristina Juric pulled down the most rebounds with eight, her second-most on the year.
Manhattan shot at its best rate in the third quarter, with a 50% clip.
NEXT UP:
Manhattan will continue its 2025-26 campaign on Thursday, January 8 when the Jaspers travel to Buffalo to take on the Golden Griffins from Canisius. Action is scheduled to take place from Koesssler Athletic Center starting at 11 a.m. and can be viewed on ESPN+ with a paid subscription.
St. Thomas More’s volleyball program continued its winning ways this past season, and coach Jessica Burke was again an instrumental reason for the Cougars doing so.
Burke, who led the Cougars to a 41-5 record and a fifth consecutive Division II state championship, was named the Acadiana Advocate’s All-Metro Volleyball Coach of the Year.
It’s another coach of the year honor for Burke, who was named the 2025 American Volleyball Coaches Association regional coach of the year.
It was another impressive showing by Burke and her Cougars, who ended the season on a 17-match winning streak.
