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NORWICH, Conn. – The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team will play Sacred Heart at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 26 in the opening round of the 2016 Northeast Conference Baseball Tournament. The #3 seed Knights will play the #2 seed Pioneers in Thursday's second game after #1 Bryant and #4 Central Connecticut play at 12 p.m. The tournament will be played at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, Connecticut.
The Knights enter the tournament with a 26-26 record and a 16-15 mark in NEC play. This is the second straight year that FDU has qualified for the NEC Tournament and the third in six seasons under head coach
Gary Puccio.
The 26 wins this season by FDU tie for the second most in a single-season in program history. The school record of 28 wins was set in 1993.
Every game of the tournament will air live on NECFrontRow.com with John Cabral, Matt Martucci and Craig D'Amico calling the action.
Be sure to follow the tournament on Twitter (
@NECbaseball) and the official tournament hashtag is #NECbaseball.
Tournament Overview
The 2016 Northeast Conference Baseball Championship will be held from May 26-29 at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, CT.
The championship will consist of a four-team, double-elimination tournament comprised of six or seven games over three days. The top four teams based on regular season conference winning percentage qualify for the NEC Tournament.
The NEC champion will go on to compete at NCAA regionals.
Ticket Information
Tickets to the 2016 NEC Baseball Championships may be purchased at Dodd Stadium on the day of the event.
Ticket prices will be on a "per day" basis. Ticket prices will cost $10 for General Admission and $5 for Seniors and children 12 years of age and under. NEC students with a valid ID will be admitted free.
Tournament Notes...
• The Knights have already won 26 games this season tying for the second most in a year in school history. The 1988 and 1994 teams also won 26 games.
• The Knights are also just two wins away from tying the program's single-season record of 28 victories, which was set in 1993.
• The Knights are currently .500 on the season (26-26) and have a chance to finish at or above .500 for the first time since the 1994 team went 26-16 (.619).
• This is FDU's Seventh NEC Tournament appearance and second consecutive…The Knights also reached the NEC Tournament in 2015, '12, '99, '97, '94 and '93.
• FDU has a 9-12 record all-time in NEC Tournament games
• FDU has won at least one game in every NEC Tournament in which they have appeared
• This is FDU's third trip to the NEC Tournament under head coach Gary Puccio. Prior to Puccio taking FDU to the tourney in 2012, the Knights had not made the postseason since 1999.
• This is the third 20+ win campaign in six seasons under Coach Puccio and just the 15th in the 67 year history of Knights' baseball.
• Senior John Giakas (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) experienced a power surge this year by slugging 12 home runs and 13 doubles. His 12 home runs are the most in the BBCOR era and are the most by a Knight in a single-season since Rob DeFabbia hit 13 in 1999.
• The Knights have stolen 102 bases this season, the second most in school history. The 1988 squad swiped 113 bags in 138 tries.
• The Knights offense is clicking this season and producing at the highest level the program has seen since the change to the BBCOR bats. FDU's batting average (.285), runs (297), home runs (44), RBI (261) and walks (193) are all single-season highs for the team since 2010, the last year before BBCOR. The Knights' 103 doubles this season are a program record, passing the previous record of 101, set in 1995 and 2010.
• Redshirt junior Logan Frati (Manorville, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor) enters the tournament with a 7-1 record, which puts him just one win shy of the program record of eight in a season. Eight wins in a season has been reached five times previously, most recently 2012.
• Junior Matt McCann (West Windsor, N.J./West Windsor-Plainsboro ) leads FDU's efforts on the bases with 27 steals this season. That number places him in a tie for sixth all-time with Steve Dembowski. McCann is just seven steals shy of FDU's single-season record of 34, held by Ron Kist.
• Senior designated hitter Joel Roman (East Hartford, Conn./East Hartford) is closing in on the FDU career record for doubles he enters the tournament with 44 steals – second all-time – and four behind Andrew Pagano's career-record of 48.
• FDU's four weekend starters – Logan Frati (Manorville, N.Y./Eastport/South Manor), Tim Quinn (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem East), Corey Zeller (Carroll, Ohio/Bloom Carroll), Chris Kachmar (East Greenville, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) – have combined to win 22 games this season.
