The St. Thomas Aquinas Baseball Team will travel to the Golden Lions Field on the campus of Dowling College in Brookhaven, N.Y., to compete in the 2013 ECC Baseball Championship.  The Spartans are the #1 seed in the tournament and will open against #4 seed Bridgeport on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.

Despite clinching the ECC Regular Season Championship for the second consecutive season with a 19-5 ECC record (35-11 overall), the St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans were unable to host due to scheduling conflicts at their home field, Provident Bank Park. With the Spartans’ park unavailable, the second seeded Golden Lions were next in line to host for the third time in the last four seasons.

Joining St. Thomas Aquinas and Dowling in the tournament field are Molloy and Bridgeport. Molloy (23-25, 14-10 ECC) is back in the tournament after a one-year hiatus as the No. 3 seed and will face Dowling (22-19-1, 15-9 ECC) at noon on May 9 in the first game of the tournament. The Golden Lions, who are two-time defending ECC Champions, swept the four game series against Molloy earlier this season with three of the four games finishing with a 2-1 score.

The other match-up pits the top seeded Spartans against No. 4 seed, Bridgeport. St. Thomas Aquinas enters the tournament on a roll, winning their last 13 games and 19 out of 20. The Spartans received votes in last week’s Collegiate Baseball Top 30 Poll and also are the only ECC team ranked in the NCAA East Region rankings heading into tournament play.
Bridgeport (20-24, 13-11 ECC), making their fourth straight appearance in the ECC Tournament, dropped three out of four contests against St. Thomas Aquinas during the regular season.

The four team tournament will begin play on Thursday, May 9 and will conclude with the championship game on May 11. The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship.

Check back to www.eccsports.org throughout the week for an ECC Baseball Championship page, which will have links to live stats, live video, recaps, and all other pertinent information about the tournament.

ECC Baseball Championship Schedule
Thursday, May 9
12:00 p.m. – No. 3 Molloy vs. No. 2 Dowling
3:00 p.m. – No. 4 Bridgeport vs. No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday, May 10
9:00 a.m. – Loser Game One vs. Loser Game Two
12:00 p.m. – Winner Game One vs. Winner Game Two
3:00 p.m. – Winner Game Three vs. Loser Game Four

Saturday, May 11
12:00 p.m. – Winner Game Four vs. Winner Game Five
If necessary – 30 minutes after completion of Game Six