Baseball Team Garners Fourth Straight ECAC Berth

CENTERVILLE, Mass. – For the fourth consecutive season and fifth time in program history the Wentworth baseball team will be playing in the ECAC Division III New England Baseball Tournament.  As announced by the ECAC this morning, the Leopards will be the tournament's fourth seed and will host a first-round game against crosstown foe and fifth-seeded Suffolk on Wednesday (May 11) at 3:00 p.m., at Northeastern University's Parsons Field.

The Leopards (24-15) are coming off of their second consecutive trip to the semifinal round of The Commonwealth Coast Conference Baseball Tournament where they defeated Salve Regina (3-1) and upset 25^th-ranked Western New England, 7-1, before falling to the Golden Bears, 4-2 and 9-3, on Saturday.  This marks the fourth consecutive season Wentworth has won 20 or more games and the 24 wins to date are the third-most in program history.  Offensively, sophomore catcher Ryan Delgado (Wareham, Mass.) leads the way with a .398 batting average, with senior first baseman Ben Danker (Branford, Conn.) and junior shortstop Conner Flisnik (Marcy, N.Y.) hitting .381 and .314, respectively.  All three, in addition to freshman outfielder Jon Spitz (Hanover, Mass.), were named Honorable Mention All-TCCC last week.  On the mound, senior Doug Papuga (Branford, Conn.) is 5-2 with a 3.97 earned run average, junior Adam Farrar (Newport, Vt.), who shut out Western New England for eight innings last Thursday, is 4-3 with a 4.23 ERA, and sophomore Alex Wong (Lewiston, Maine) is 3-2 with a 4.25 ERA.

Winners of this tournament in 2000, the Rams enter today's game at UMass Dartmouth with a 22-20 record, including winning six of their last eight contests.  This past weekend Suffolk knocked off 16^th-ranked Wheaton and split with MIT, which is ranked in the NCAA Regional Poll.  Suffolk came out of the loser's bracket in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tournament to face St. Joseph's (Maine) in the championship game, but was defeated, 8-6.  The Rams placed seven student-athletes on the GNAC All-Conference Team, including senior Alex Torres (Framingham, Mass.) and freshman Jake Cintolo (Wrentham, Mass.), who were named the conference's pitcher and rookie of the year, respectively.

Wentworth is coached by Steve Studley (Castleton State '94), who is in his seventh season at the helm and has a program-best 134-128-1 (.511) record as a career head coach.  One hundred and five of those wins have come over the last four seasons as the Leopards are 105-62-1 (.628) during that span.  Suffolk head coach Cary McConnell (Wooster '89) is in his 17^th season as the Rams' head coach and has a 402-223-2 (.643) record at Suffolk.  Including three seasons at the University of Rochester, McConnell is 457-283-2 (.617).

In four previous ECAC Tournament appearances, Wentworth is 3-4, which includes advancing to last season's championship game.  Wednesday's game will mark the 15^th all-time meeting between the two schools, but the first since the 1999 season.  Suffolk, which has won the last three meetings between the two schools, holds an 11-3 series lead.

2011 ECAC DIVISION III NEW ENGLAND BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
First Round (Wednesday, May 11)
(8) Becker (22-11) at (1) Endicott (30-15), 4:00 p.m.
(5) Suffolk (22-20) at (4) Wentworth (24-15), 3:00 p.m.
(3) Worcester State (23-14) at (6) Coast Guard (20-15), 3:00 p.m.
(7) Anna Maria (24-19) at (2) Brandeis (24-18), 3:30 p.m.

Semifinals (Saturday, May 14 – at higher seeds)
Endicott/Becker winner vs Wentworth/Suffolk winner, TBA; Brandeis/Anna Maria winner vs Worcester State/Coast Guard winner, TBA

Finals (Sunday, May 15 – at higher remaining seed)
Semifinal winners, TBA