WILMINGTON, Del. (May 13, 2011) – Wilmington University advanced to the 2011 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Baseball Championship with a 3-0 win over top seed Dominican College Friday afternoon at Frawley Stadium. The Wildcats will face the Chargers again Saturday at 11:00 am for the CACC Championship. Because of the double-elimination format, the Chargers will have to beat Wilmington twice Saturday to win the title.

So far through five tournament games in Wilmington, the losing teams have yet to score a single run.  Wilmington and Dominican have each posted two shutouts, while Post recorded one. There were a total of seven shutouts in tournament games from 2004 to 2010.

The Wildcats, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, were led by senior right-hander Kurt Bruce, who hurled eight innings of scoreless ball against the Chargers. He scattered seven hits and fanned eight batters. Jordan Oncay posted his sixth save with a perfect ninth inning.

The Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning by taking advantage of a Dominican fielding error. Oncay reached on an error to lead off the inning and scored two batters later on a Matt Botting single. Senior Brian Woodford followed with a sacrifice fly. Both runs were unearned for DC starter Dustin Javins, who went nine innings and allowed just one earned run on five hits with six strikeouts.

The Wildcats added a third run in the sixth inning on an RBI single by Matt Umba, plating Joe Harbach, who reached base with a lead-off single.

Later in the day, Dominican earned a 7-0 win in an elimination game against Post to advance to Saturday’s championship for the second straight season. The Chargers defeated the Eagles for the 2010 crown.

Junior right-hander Justin Moore went the distance and allowed only four hits to improve to 8-1 this season. Designated hitter Christopher Gonzalez had three hits and one RBI for DC, while Mario Lopez and Robert Iglesias each had two hits in the victory.

Post eliminated No. 5 University of the Sciences, 4-0, to start the day behind a complete game shutout from senior right-hander Tom Sirois. Sirois allowed only three hits to go with one walk and five strikeouts. Senior 2B Brendan Barry matched USci’s hit total with a 3-for-4 effort with one run and one RBI. He doubled in the first inning and later scored on a single from junior 1B Travis Locascio. Senior DH Ralph Dieguez also had an RBI single in the inning to give the Eagles a quick 2-0 edge after one inning of play.

USci starter Luke Peyton settled down after the rough start, but the Eagles struck again for a pair of runs in the sixth to force the Devils to go to the bullpen. Barry drew a bases loaded walk to account for the fourth and final run of the game.  Dieguez went 2-for-3 with one run and one RBI for Post.  

The results of the tournament are below. The tournament champion will earn the CACC’s automatic berth to next week’s NCAA Division II East Region Tournament.

CACC Baseball Tournament
Tuesday, May 10 (single elimination)
Game 1: #5 USciences 8, #4 Caldwell 5
Game 2: #3 Post 8, #6 Chestnut Hill 7

Thursday, May 12 - Wilson Field (double elimination)
Game 3: #1 Dominican 7, #5 USciences 0
Game 4: #2 Wilmington 9, #3 Post 0

Friday, May 13 - Frawley Stadium
Game 5: Post 4, USciences 0
Game 6: Wilmington 3, Dominican 0
Game 7: Dominican 7, Post 0

Saturday, May 14 - Frawley Stadium
Game 8: Wilmington vs. Dominican - 11:00 a.m.
Game 9: Repeat Game 8 if necessary, 2:00 p.m.