Ravens look for second ECAC Division II Title in three years

RINDGE, N.H. (May 11, 2004) - Franklin Pierce has been named the top seed and host of the 2004 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division II Baseball Championship to be held on campus May 14-15. Joining the Ravens in the three-team modified double-elimination event are second-seeded New Jersey Institute of Technology and third-seeded Wilmington (Del.) College, both from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

The tournament will get under way on Friday with third-seeded Wilmington (20-24, 10-6 CACC) facing second-seeded New Jersey Institute of Technology (23-22, 11-5 CACC) at 10 a.m. Top-seeded Franklin Pierce (29-22, 23-8 NE-10) will face the loser of game one at 1 p.m., and the winner at 4 p.m.

Saturday's schedule will get underway at noon with the game to be announced based on the results of Friday's round robin. All possible scenarios are listed below.

Franklin Pierce is making its third ECAC Championship appearance over the last five seasons and is in search of its second ECAC title in the last three years after claiming the title with a pair of wins over Westminster (Pa.) College in 2002. The Ravens finished second in the Northeast-10 Conference this season and reached the NE-10 Tournament for the fourth-straight year. Franklin Pierce narrowly missed out on its second-straight NCAA Tournament berth as it was ranked fifth in the final NCAA Northeast Regional rankings.

The Ravens are led by NE-10 Player of the Year Eric Cavers (Otisfield, Maine/Oxford Hills) who leads the NE-10 in batting average (.390), on-base percentage (.473), slugging percentage (.626), runs scored (51) and hits (73), while also ranking high among NE-10 leaders with 15 doubles (4^th), four triples (4^th), seven home runs (2^nd), 35 RBI (9^th) and 20 stolen bases (5^th). The top defensive catcher in the Conference, he has thrown out 34.2-percent (13-38) of the potential base stealers against him this season to go with a Conference-best seven pickoffs.

Juniors Keith Brouillard (Westport, Mass./Somerset) and Bryan Borowski (Clarksburg, Mass./Drury) lead the Ravens pitching staff. Brouillard, a first team All-Conference pick this season, is 8-1 (3^rd NE-10 in wins) with one save, a 2.37 ERA, 62 strikeouts and just 16 walks in 83.2 innings (5^th) of work over 13 appearances, nine starts this spring, with five complete-games and two shutouts. Opposing batters are hitting just .209 against him this season (6^th NE-10). Borowski is 4-5 with a 2.11 ERA (9^th NE-10), 76 strikeouts (5^th) and 29 walks in 89.2 innings (3^rd) of work over 12 starts (3^rd) with five complete games and three shutouts with opposing batters hitting a mere .202 against him (4^th).           

New Jersey Institute of Technology is making its first ECAC Tournament appearance since it played in the Division III event in 1990. The Highlanders placed second in the CACC standings and were runners up to Caldwell College, an NCAA Tournament participant, over the weekend at the Conference Tournament.

NJIT is led by senior Chris Schwartz (Blairstown, N.J./North Warren Regional), the CACC Player of the Year, who hit .353 (59-167) with 31 runs scored, ten doubles, five triples, eight home runs and 33 RBI. Junior Dan Lupo (West Milford, N.J./West Milford) is hitting .379 (55-145) with 33 runs scored, seven doubles, three homers and 35 RBI.

Sophomore Chris Legaidre (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) is the Highlanders top pitcher with an 8-2 record, 3.00 ERA, 59 strikeouts and just five walks over 75 innings with seven complete games and opposing batters hitting just .240 against him.            

Wilmington is making its first ECAC Championship appearance in any sport this week. The Wildcats finished third in the CACC standings behind New Jersey Tech and Caldwell College.

Wilmington is led by junior right-hander Pete Henyan (Corning, N.Y./Corning East), the CACC Pitcher of the Year, who posted a 5-2 record with a 1.51 ERA, 97 strikeouts and 23 walks in 71.1 innings of work over 16 appearances (nine starts) with three complete games and a shutout while limiting opposing hitters to a .211 batting average. He is also batting .354 (51-144) with 31 runs scored, 11 doubles, three home runs and 24 RBI with seven stolen bases.

Senior Adam Brown (Wilmington, Del./Caravel Academy) is hitting .341 (45-132) with 33 runs scored, seven doubles, three homers and 26 RBI to go with 14 stolen bases.

All games will be played at Crystal Field on the Franklin Pierce campus. Admission to the event is free of charge. 

2004 ECAC DIVISION II
BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
May 14-15, 2004
Crystal Field, Rindge, N.H.  

Friday, May 14:
G1: #3 Wilmington (20-24, 10-6 CACC) vs. #2 New Jersey Institute of Technology (23-22, 11-5 CACC), 
10 a.m.
G2: Loser game one at #1 Franklin Pierce (29-22, 23-8 NE-10), 1 p.m.
G3: Winner game one at #1 Franklin Pierce, 4 p.m.  

Saturday, May 15:
G4: TBA, Noon
G5: if necessary, 3 p.m.  

Scenarios:
If loser of game one also loses game two (thus being eliminated), game three begins three-game ECAC Championship series between winner of game one and winner of game two, each of whom would be 1-0 to that point.  

If Franklin Pierce loses two-straight games, loser game one/winner game two must defeat winner of game three twice on Saturday for ECAC Championship.

If all three teams are 1-1 after Friday, Wilmington and NJIT will play at noon Saturday with the winner to face Franklin Pierce at 3 p.m., for the ECAC Championship.