The seeds for the 2009 America East Baseball Championship are now official after the regular season came to a close Saturday afternoon. Binghamton University, the top seed for the tournament, will host #2 Albany, #3 Stony Brook and #4 Vermont in the four-team double-elimination tournament which begins Thursday, May 21. The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship.
The Bearcats will play host to the championship at Pete Sylvester Field at Union-Endicott High School in Endicott, N.Y., earning the right to host by virtue of its third-straight Regular Season Championship. Binghamton becomes the first America East team to capture three straight regular season titles since former member Delaware won five in a row between 1994-98. The Bearcats have played in each of the past two championship games, but have not won a tournament title.
The Great Danes, who most recently won the tournament in 2007, clinched their highest seed entering the tournament since joining the league. Albany rebounded from being swept at Hartford on Friday with a sweep of their own on Saturday, 15-3 and 10-6. The Great Danes will begin the tournament facing the Seawolves on Thursday. The two teams split their regular season four-game series in Stony Brook on April 25-26.
Stony Brook is the defending conference champion and will look to defend its title as the three seed. The Seawolves are making their fourth straight tournament appearance, the longest such active streak in the league. Stony Brook defeated Maine in their first game on Saturday, 17-7, but couldn't hold the lead in the nightcap, falling 6-5 in 10 innings.
Vermont will return to the Southern Tier as the fourth seed after taking three out of four from Binghamton this weekend. The Catamounts are the longest tenured member of America East without a conference championship, and hope to change that this week in their final tournament appearance. Vermont scored 30 runs during Saturday's doubleheader and will try to keep that momentum going when it faces Binghamton for the fifth time in six days on Thursday.
Ticket
prices for all games will be $7 for adults (14+), $3 for youth and $2 for America
East students with appropriate ID.
Stay tuned to www.AmericaEast.com for tournament schedule, statistics and recaps.
2009 America East Baseball Championship
Thursday, May 21
Game 1: #1 Binghamton vs. #4 Vermont, TBD
Game 2: #2 Albany vs. #3 Stony Brook, TBD
Friday, May 22
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 (elimination game), TBD
Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, TBD
Saturday, May 23
Game 5: Loser of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 3 (elimination game), TBD
Game 6: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 (championship game), TBD
Sunday, May 24
Game 7: If Necessary, Winner of Game 6 vs. Loser of Game 6, 12 p.m.