NEW HAVEN, CT (May 6, 2009) - After going 22-5 in conference play this season, Dominican College has claimed the top seed for the upcoming Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Baseball Tournament, which will take place May 7-9 at Wilmington University. Bloomfield College is the No. 2 seed, Wilmington is No. 3 and Nyack College garnered the No. 4 seed.

Dominican enters the tournament with a 35-10 overall record and is the top-ranked team in the East Region. The Chargers won 20 of their last 21 games, including a 16-game win streak against conference foes to end the regular-season. DC's last conference loss came back on April 4 at Wilmington. The Chargers feature the CACC Pitcher of the Year in sophomore Tom Kahl, the Rookie of the Year in closer Justin Moore, and head coach Rick Giannetti was named Coach of the Year. Five Chargers earned first team All-CACC accolades, including freshman OF Alexi Colon, sophomore DH Michael Munoz, senior starter Brian Craig, and Kahl and Moore.

Bloomfield, Wilmington and Nyack all finished the regular-season with 15-12 conference records. Bloomfield won the tie-breaker by going 5-1 against the Wildcats and Warriors, and Wilmington took the third seed by going 3-3. Nyack finished 1-5 against the Deacons and Wildcats.

Bloomfield (18-24) started to march up the CACC standings in early April by winning 11 of 13 games to start the month. The Deacons won two of three games against top-seeded Dominican during that stretch. They also swept Nyack and took two of three games against Wilmington. Senior INF/DH Ricky Maldonado, junior relief pitcher John Walsh and sophomore starter Steve Godowski were second team All-CACC selections.

Wilmington (24-27) recorded a 6-2 mark in its final eight conference games, and clinched a playoff berth by taking two of three games against Felician to conclude the season. The Wildcats are led by CACC Player of the Year, Cody Holliday, who leads the CACC in hits, runs batted in, total bases and doubles. Junior starter Joe Harris was a second team All-CACC pick after going 4-5 in the regular-season with a 3.41 earned-run average, along with 71 strikeouts (third in the CACC) in 66.0 innings of work.

Needing to sweep a doubleheader (and with it the series) with Post University to ensure a spot in the tournament, Nyack (19-15) did just that in dramatic fashion, coming back late in both games to win 5-3 and 4-2 to end the regular-season.  The Warriors used the strong, durable right arm of junior Phil Messerian, who picked up two saves and a win in the series. The Warriors are also led by senior 1B Cody Levins, who was first team All-CACC this season after being named CACC Player of the Year in 2008. Levins is second in the CACC in batting (.395), behind teammate PJ Rodriguez, who leads with a .415 average.

The schedule for the 2009 CACC Tournament is below.

Thursday, May 7 - at Wilmington's Wilson Field

Game 1 - #1 Dominican vs. #4 Nyack - 12:00 pm

Game 2 - #2 Bloomfield vs. #3 Wilmington - 3:00 pm

Friday, May 8 - at Frawley Stadium, home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks

Game 3 - Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 - 12:00 pm

Game 4 - Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 - 3:00 pm

Game 5 - Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 - 6:00 pm

Saturday, May 9 - at Frawley Stadium, home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks

Game 6 - Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 - 11:00 am

Game 7 (If necessary) - 2:00 pm