STONY BROOK, N.Y. – NJIT is headed to its first NCAA Division I Baseball Championship in program history. Per conference policy, NJIT received the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the lone unbeaten team in the championship after the remainder of the 2021 #AEBASE Championship was unable to be completed due to inclement weather on Sunday.
With the NCAA deadline for completing conference baseball championships set at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 30 and due to the poor weather forecast for the remainder of the day as well as the host facility not having lights, conference officials determined the championship could not be completed.
The Highlanders enter NCAAs on a nine-game winning streak after winning their first two games of the #AEBASE Championship to advance to the championship game in the winner’s bracket. The Highlanders beat UAlbany, 5-2, on the first day of the championship and followed with a 2-1 walk-off win over Maine on an action-packed Friday.
The championship round featured NJIT out of the winner’s bracket and Stony Brook, which lost its first game against Maine before rattling off two consecutive wins, out of the loser's bracket needing to beat the Highlanders twice to win the title. Game six of the championship was suspended in the bottom of the third inning on Saturday with the Seawolves holding a 1-0 lead and was unable to be re-started on Sunday.
The Highlanders (26-22) will play in the Fayetteville Regional and will take on No. 1 Arkansas in the opening game on Friday, June 3 at 3 p.m. #AEBASE teams have 17 wins in the NCAA Baseball Championship all-time, including six by Stony Brook in 2012 during its historic run to the Men's College World Series.
The two championship teams combined for six All-Championship selections in NJIT's Tyler Stafflinger, Ryan Fischer and Jake Rappaport and Stony Brook's Nick DeGennaro, Jared Milch and John LaRocca. Also named to the team were Maine's Nick Sinacola and Alex McKenney and UAlbany's Brad Malm.
NJIT junior Andrew Elcock earned the conference’s Elite 18 Award. Elcock carries a 3.81 GPA in industrial design.
Visit Championship Central for box scores and daily recaps from the tournament.
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