The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team will face Dowling College in the final day of the NCAA East Regional in Manchester, NH, Sunday at noon. Reminiscent of the ECC Tournament, STAC needs two wins while Dowling needs just one to advance to the NCAA Championships in Cary, NC.
Dowling, coming in as the #5 seed, is the only undefeated team remaining, having defeated Franklin Pierce, Wilmington, and Southern New Hampshire to improve to 36-15 entering Sunday's action.
As they did in last week's East Coast Conference tournament, St. Thomas Aquinas - seeded #4 - lost its first contest before making it to the final day. STAC dropped its opener to Wilmington but rebounded for victories against SNHU and Felician to run their record to 36-16 overall. The Spartans are also now 10-1 in games when facing elimination in tournament play over the past two seasons.
A similar scenario played out just one week ago in the ECC Tournament, with STAC facing Dowling and needing two wins in the final day. The Spartans won the opener by a 12-3 count and took a thrilling finale by a score of 4-3 in 10 innings to earn their second straight ECC championship.
Sunday's opener will be the seventh meeting of the season between St. Thomas Aquinas and Dowling. The Golden Lions, regular season champs in the ECC, split the four-game regular-season series with STAC before dropping their two home tournament games, giving the Spartans a 4-2 edge in the season series.
Whoever emerges victorious on Sunday will join the other seven regional champs in the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship, to be hosted by Mount Olive University at the USA National Baseball Center in Cary, North Carolina, from May 24-31.
The 2014 East Regional will be seen as a successful one by proponents of the East Coast Conference, as ECC schools stand at 5-1 overall and are assured the regional champ. Teams from both the Northeast-10 and the Central College Athletic Conference compiled identical 2-4 marks.
In addition to the live video and LiveStats provided by SNHU, be sure to check out our in-game LiveBlog for constant game updates throughout the day. Everything you need to know is listed below:
NCAA Division II Baseball Home Page
Full NCAA Division II Tournament Schedules and
Results
East Regional Championship Central
East Regional results:
Thursday, May 15
Game 1 - (1) Southern New Hampshire 9, (6) Felician 3 - The hosts unleash a 7-run barrage in the bottom of the 1st inning and cruise to victory.
Game 2 - (5) Dowling 3, (2) Franklin Pierce 0 - ECC Pitcher of the Year Tyler Badamo tosses a shutout and his offense provides two homers in the opening victory.
Game 3 - (3) Wilmington 4, (4) St. Thomas Aquinas 0 - Wilmington scores four runs in the third and pitching does the rest for the Wildcats.
Friday, May 16
Game 4 - (2) Felician (1L) 5, (6) Franklin Pierce (2L) 0 (Franklin Pierce eliminated) - Jack Fowler tosses a six-hit shutout and the Golden Falcons strike late to send FPU packing.
Game 5 - (4) St. Thomas Aquinas (1L) 6, (1) Southern New Hampshire (1L) 1 - Nick D'Angelo homers and Rob Frank braves a 64-minute rain delay, striking out 13 in a complete game win.
Game 6 - (5) Dowling (0L) 6, (3) Wilmington (1L) 1 - Tom Bammann carries a shutout into the final inning as the Golden Lions remain the only team in the Winner's Bracket, securing a slot in Sunday's final action.
Saturday, May 17
Game 7 - (1) Southern New Hampshire (1L) 4, (3) Wilmington (2L) 3 (Wilmington eliminated) - The hosts rally to overcome a 3-run deficit and keep their season alive, ending the season of the Wilcdats.
Game 8 - (4) St. Thomas Aquinas (1L) 8, (6) Felician 5 (2L) (Felician eliminated) - Spartans score six unanswered runs as a 3-run rally in bottom of 8th makes CJ Ferriggi a winner in relief.
Game 9 - (5) Dowling 4 (0L), (1) Southern New Hampshire 3 (2L) (SNHU eliminated) - The Golden Lions hold on to eliminate the hosts and set up an ECC Final rematch with St. Thomas Aquinas on Sunday.
Sunday, May 18
Game 10 - (4) St. Thomas Aquinas (visitors) vs (5) Dowling (home) - 12:00 noon
Game 11 - to follow 30 minutes after completion of Game 10
if STAC wins.