Pioneers Kick-Off NEC Tournament Against CCSU Thursday
5/26/2021 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NORWICH, Conn. — It has been 732 days since the last Northeast Conference Championship game for the Sacred Heart University baseball program due to the pandemic halting the 2020 season. The Pioneers face reigning champions Central Connecticut State in the first round at 4 p.m. on Thursday at Dodd Stadium.
The championship will consist of a four-team, double-elimination tournament comprised of six or seven games over the following weekend. The top four teams – Bryant, CCSU, SHU and LIU – clinched a tournament berth based on regular-season conference winning percentage.
The Red and White and the Blue Devils played two series earlier this season where Sacred Heart narrowly fell in the first two games but came out on top in the final contest of the series. SHU rebounded from the lost and took the second series, including a 4-3 victory at Dunkin' Donuts Park in Hartford, Conn. all thanks to Isiah Daubon's three-run home run in the sixth.
Riding a hot streak, relief pitcher Brendan Coffey captured his first NEC Pitcher of the Week following two scoreless three-inning appearances last weekend against Wagner. The graduate student returned to the mound to close out game three with a 14-6 victory and secured his ninth save of the season, which ranks 18th in the NCAA.
Outfielder Justin Jordan is magnetized to home with a team-high of 39 runs in 39 games, while Elijah Brown is not far behind him with 33 in 43 games.
Chase Jeter leads the team with five wins and sits eighth with a 3.81 ERA against conference foes, including a recent 12-7 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson on April 30.
Ryan LaMay holds two victories under his cap with a 2-0 shutout at Stony Brook and an impressive 13-3 contest against Wagner.
Jake Babuschak sealed the series sweep over the Fairleigh Dickinson for his second win of the season and has yet to give up a single home run, where he is tied for first in the league. The first-year holds the seventh spot in the NEC with a 3.68 ERA against conference opponents.
In the first round of the NEC Tournament, SHU has an 11-1 record in its 12 appearances. The Pioneers have won the tournament four times in 2006, 2011, 2012 and most recently 2015 with nine appearances in the championship game
Sacred Heart has battled the Blue Devils in the initial round four times and has a 3-1 record against CCSU and an overall 6-5 post-season record versus CCSU.
The winners of the first-round games play each other at 4 p.m. on Friday, while the two losing teams battle it out at noon.
