Chargers Earn Fourth Seed In Upcoming CACC Baseball Tournament

Courtesy of Kirk Reed, Assistant Commissioner New Haven, CT (5/7/07)

Caldwell College has garnered the top seed for the upcoming 2007 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Baseball Tournament, which will be hosted by Wilmington College on Thursday-Saturday, May 10-12. The Cougars finished the regular-season with an 11-5 conference record, one game ahead of #2 Wilmington and #3 Felician College. Two-time defending Tournament Champion Dominican College is the No. 4 seed.

Wilmington and Felician with open the tournament with a game at noon on Thursday, May 10. Caldwell will take on Dominican at approximately 3:00 pm.

Caldwell is currently 22-11 overall and ranked third in the NCAA Division II Northeast Region Poll released on April 29th.  The Cougars clinched the regular-season title with two wins over Dominican on April 29 and May 1. Caldwell is led by a number of freshmen, including outfielder Raymond Keelan, who leads the team with a .391 batting average and 54 hits. Fellow rookie outfielder Adric Saxon leads the club with 13 home runs and 53 RBI, while first-year outfielder Omar Velazquez is batting .368 and leads the team with 14 doubles. Junior catcher Chris Chiarappa is second on the team with a .381 batting average.

On the mound, freshman Robert Casal sports an 8-1 record with a 3.84 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 58.2 innings pitched. Sophomore starters Eric Hines and Stephen Pfeil both have 4.50 ERA's and a combined 10-6 record.

Wilmington and Felician both finished the conference slate with 10-6 marks, but the Wildcats won a tie-breaker over the Golden Falcons to claim the No. 2 seed. Wilmington went 4-1 down the stretch in conference play and finished with a 26-18 overall record. Meanwhile, Felician charged up the standings by going 8-2 in its final 10 CACC games, including five straight to end the season. The Golden Falcons are 28-23 overall.

Wilmington, the eighth-ranked team in the region, is led by senior outfielder Jason Rust, who leads the CACC in home runs with 19 while also owning a .372 batting average, 10 doubles and 58 RBI. Junior Brian Testa has knocked in 40 runs with a .350 batting average and junior 3B Mike Wilson is also hitting at a .350 clip with 37 RBI.  Junior right-hander Joe Matterer leads the Wildcats on the mound with a 10-1 mark along with a 3.86 ERA.  

Felician is led by senior 1B Frank Quintana, who is batting .413 with 16 home runs, 59 RBI and 23 stolen bases. Senior Chris Flynn (.369), senior Ray Rose (.368) and freshman Richard Melendez (.362) are also hitting over .350 with at least 45 hits apiece for the Golden Falcons. Sophomore right-hander Williams Senna leads Felician with five victories while freshman relief pitcher Jeff Calabrese is 4-1 with a team-best 2.64 ERA.

  Dominican, which has won five of the last six CACC Tournaments, went 9-7 in conference play and earned a spot in the tournament after a sweep of Bloomfield on Saturday afternoon. The Chargers are 18-17 overall and are led by sophomore shortstop Jose Made (Binghamton, NY), who sports a .357 batting average with four home runs and 36 RBI. Senior infielder Joe Dimicelli (Staten Island, NY) is batting .319 with 20 RBI, senior catcher Pete Gilardo (Cornwall, NY) is hitting .311 with 19 RBI and senior Jose Escalera (Bronx, NY) is second on the team with 28 RBI. Senior righty Matt Dilgen (Staten Island, NY) leads the Chargers with a 4-1 record while senior right-hander Joe Catanese (Huntington, NY) is the team-leader with 58 strikeouts in 54.2 innings of work.