Sacred Heart Opens 2015 NCAA Tournament at TCU Tonight at 8 PM
5/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
2015 NCAA Tournament – Fort Worth Regional
Sacred Heart at TCU – 8 pm ET
Probable Starters: RHP James Cooksey (7-2, 3.50) vs. RHP Mitchell Traver (7-2, 1.89)
Game Notes | Brackets | Watch on ESPN3 | Live Stats | Tournament Central | Sacred Heart Press Conference | ESPN Bases Loaded
The Sacred Heart baseball team will begin play in the 2015 NCAA tournament at the Fort Worth Regional tonight at 8 pm ET on ESPN 3, opening up with national number seven seed TCU on the opening day of the four team, double elimination regional. Third seeded Stony Brook and second seed North Carolina State open the Regional at 3:30 pm ET.
SHU qualified for the tournament with its third Northeast Conference championship in the past five seasons, rallying from a 4-3 deficit entering the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory, its second ninth inning comeback of the tournament. In total, it is the fourth NCAA tournament appearance in program history in 16 years of Division I baseball. SHU is 0-6 in its previous three Tournament appearances.
The Pioneers, who come into the tournament winners of seven of their past nine, will give the ball to James Cooksey. A back-to-back All-Northeast Conference Relief Pitcher, Cooksey will be making just his sixth start of the year, but is coming off a complete game two hitter in the opening game of the NEC Tournament last weekend. He leads the Pioneers in wins, innings pitched and saves. Offensively, Sacred Heart will be led by three All-NEC selections, its top three hitters, Jayson Sullivan, Jesus Medina, and Zack Short. Sullivan is tops on the team with both 61 hits and 13 stolen bases, while Medina is leading the team with a .327 average and Short is atop the team in ten statistical categories.
The Big XII regular season champions with an 18-5 league mark and 43-11 overall record, seventh seeded TCU is just one of three teams to repeat as a national seed from a year ago. Prior to losing its two conference tournament games last week, the Horned Frogs were winners of nine in a row and 17 of 18. They will give the ball to Mitchell Traver, one of 14 Horned Frogs to earn All-Big XII accolades. He was named honorable mention after leading the team with a 1.89 ERA en route to a 7-2 record. He allowed just 41 hits in 62 innings pitched for a .190 opponent batting average while striking out 60. Out of the bullpen is a First Team selection, Riley Ferrel, who led the league with 14 saves and posted a 0.68 ERA in 25 appearances out of the bullpen. Conference Player of the Year Cody Jones and Rookie of the Year Connor Wanhanen lead the offense and were two of five players named to the First Team. Jones led the league with both a .364 batting average and 25 stolen bases, while Wanhanen was second on the team with a .346 batting average and 30 RBI's.
