Baseball Advances To Final Day Of 2011 ECC Championship Tournament With 13-3 Win Over St. Thomas Aquinas
Purple Knights Must Defeat Dowling Twice On Saturday To Claim Conference Crown
Brookhaven, N.Y.-The University of Bridgeport baseball team advance to the final day of the 2011 East Coast Conference Championship Tournament by thrashing the St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans, 13-3, in the final elimination game of the tournament's second day. With the win, Bridgeport is now a single season school-record 30-13 overall. STAC ends its season at 26-25-1. Bridgeport will now face Dowling College at 12 noon on Saturday, and the Purple Knights must defeat the Golden Lions twice to win the 2011 ECC title and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship which will begin next week.
After defeating number one seed Molloy, 1-0, on Friday morning, UB broke a 1-1 with St. Thomas Aquinas by scoring five runs in the top of the fifth on their way to the 10-run win.
Juniors Eric Schlitter (Guilford, Conn.) and Matt Ranaudo (Milford, Conn.) each drove in three runs for the Purple Knights, and senior Gaetano Giunta (Brooklyn,N.Y.) led a 12-hit UB attack by going 4-for-6 at the plate.
Sophomore Chris Maull (Winslow, N.J.) worked the first five innings of the game to pick up the win and raise his season record to 4-2.