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WATERBURY, Conn. (May 9, 2019) -- Bloomfield College, Dominican College and Wilmington University each picked up wins on Thursday during day one of the double-elimination portion of the 2019 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Baseball Championship to punch their tickets to Friday with a trip to the finals on the line. The 2019 tournament is once again being staged at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury, Conn.

Wilmington and Dominican each needed just one try to lock up wins, as they advanced in the winner's bracket and will square off against each at 12 p.m., on Friday with the winner gaining the first spot in Saturday's championship final. WilmU -- the No. 2 seed from the South and the highest remaining seed in the tournament -- got the day started with a 2-1 win over Jefferson (South #4), while North No. 2 Dominican followed with a 6-2 win over Bloomfield (N#4). Friday's contest will feature the last two CACC Champions squaring off, as the Chargers claimed the 2017 CACC crown, while the Wildcats wrestled it away in 2018.

Bloomfield, however, needed to regroup quickly following the loss to Dominican and was able to do so in the nightcap as the Bears pulled off a 6-0 triumph to eliminate the Rams. Bloomfield will now play on Friday at 3 p.m., versus the loser of the Wilmu-DC contest. 

S#2 WILMINGTON 2, S#4 JEFFERSON 1  /  Boxscore
Luke Johnson and Max Carney each drove in a run in the bottom of the sixth to erase a 1-0 deficit and make Brad Scull's strong start on the mound stand up in the victory over Jefferson. Johnson had a RBI sacrifice fly, while Carney stroked and RBI single later in the frame. WilmU's two runs came an inning after Jefferson took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI sacrifice fly from Richard Joa.

Scull was impressive in his start on the mound by going six innings and yielding just the one run on three hits with four strikeouts to just three walks. Scull moved to 6-0 on the year. Kyle Maxwell, Zach Frederick and Dan Hyatt each tossed a scoreless inning of relief, including Hyatt in the ninth to nail down the save.

Patrick Hohlfeld took the tough luck loss for Jefferson, as he started and went seven quality innings. Both runs he yielded were unearned, as he scattered four hits and struck out five. He did permit five walks.

N#2 DOMINICAN 6, N#4 BLOOMFIELD 2  /  Boxscore
Bloomfield scratched out a pair of runs in the top of the eighth to knot the game at 2-2, but Dominican countered with four runs in the home half of the frame to pull off the victory. Elijah Tavares and Joshua Colon each scored on wild pitches, as the latter came home on the WP after scorching an RBI double to left center earlier in the inning.

The Chargers pushed a run across in both the first and fourth innings to go up 2-0, but the Bears finally broke through on starting pitcher John-Michael Broderick with a pair in the eighth. Christopher Morillo scored on a throwing error, while Kendon Strachan doubled down the left-field line scoring Jhoan Rodriguez.

Broderick did not factor into the decision despite going 7.2 strong innings by yielding a pair of unearned runs on just six hits with two strikeouts and yielding zero walks. Cole Francher came on in relief of Broderick in the eighth and got the final four outs for Dominican, including a scoreless ninth to get the win and run his record to 6-0. He struck out two over his 1.1 innings of work and did not allow a hit nor a walk.

N#4 BLOOMFIELD 6, S#4 JEFFERSON 0  /  Boxscore
The Bears plated five of their runs over the fifth and sixth innings, including a four spot in the latter frame to open up the game and never look back in the win over the Rams. Bloomfield tacked on an insurance run in the ninth and Jefferson tried to make things interesting in the home half of the frame by loading the bases with no outs, but could not make any more noise after that.

Wilfrido Valenzuela was sensational in starting on the mound for Bloomfield, as he worked seven scorless innings and scattering a trio of hits with six K's and only one base on balls. He got the win to improve to 3-2 on the year.

While Valenzuela was dealing, his offense finally broke through in the sixth with a two-run double by Elvis Lopez and a two-RBI single from Khalid Legette. That made the score 5-0, as Jason Holguin scored the team's first run in the fifth following a balk called on Jefferson starting pitcher Jack Galligan.

ABOUT THE CACC
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 14 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia (N.Y.) College, Dominican (N.Y.) College, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), Nyack College, Post University of Waterbury, University of the Sciences, and Wilmington University.