UTICA, NY – The North Eastern Athletic Conference West Division Baseball Championship Tournament, which will be hosted by SUNYIT and was originally scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, has been rescheduled for this Saturday and Sunday due to last night's heavy rains.
All games will be played in Rome, NY at the Rome Baseball Association, Inc., which is home to Larry DeLutis Field and Volunteer Field. Directions can be found here.
The double-elimination tournament will now begin with a pair of games at 8:30 am on Saturday, as No. 1 seed SUNYIT will take on No. 4 seed Penn State Berks at DeLutis Field (Game One), while No. 2 seed Penn State Abington will square off against No. 3 seed Gallaudet University at Volunteer Field (Game Two). The losers of each contest will then play against each other at 11:30 am (Game Three), while the winners will square off at 2:30 pm (Game Four). Game Five will then see the winner of Game Three take on the loser of Game Four at 5:30 pm. Games Three, Four and Five will all played on DeLutis Field.
Sunday's action will all be played at DeLutis Field, with the winner of Game Four taking on the Winner of Game 5 at 10:00 am (Game Six). Should another game be needed to determine the champion, the seventh and final game will be held at 1:00 pm.
The Wildcats earned the right to host the tournament after winning the NEAC West Division regular season championship with a 12-2 overall record. The Wildcats, who won last year's NEAC West Tournament as the No. 4 seed, have put together one of their greatest seasons ever, as they are sporting a program-best overall record of 22-12 while currently being ranked fourth nationally in both hits allowed per nine innings and earned run average.
The winner of the NEAC West Tournament will move on to square off against the NEAC East Division Champion for a best-of-three series on Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8 at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont. The NEAC East Division consists of associate members from the North Atlantic Conference (NAC), which includes Castleton, Husson, Lyndon State, Maine-Farmington and Thomas. The winner of the three-game series will earn the NEAC's automatic qualifier to the NCAA DIII Regional Tournament.
An outline of the entire revised tournament schedule is as follows:
Saturday, April 30
Location: Field 1*
Game 1: 8:30 am – No. 1 SUNYIT vs. No. 4 Penn State Berks
Game 3: 11:30 am – Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2
Game 4: 2:30 pm – Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2
Game 5: 5:30 pm – Loser of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 3
Location: Field 2*
Game 2: 8:30 am – No. 2 Penn State Abington vs. No. 3 Gallaudet University
Sunday, May 1
Location: Field 1*
Game 6: 10:00 am – Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5
Game 7: 1:00 pm – Winner of Game 6 vs. Loser of Game 6 (if necessary)
*Field 1 = Larry DeLutis Field
*Field 2 = Volunteer Field