NEW CASTLE, DE--Caldwell College upended Dominican College, 3-0 today to capture the 2008 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Baseball Tournament Championship at Wilmington University's Wilson Field. Junior right-hander Eric Hines hurled a complete game shutout for the Cougars, who have received the CACC's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Division II Northeast Regional Tournament. This is Caldwell's first conference championship since 2004.
Caldwell got all the offense it would need in the fourth inning when sophomore right-fielder Adric Saxon blasted a home run over the left field fence to give his team a 1-0 lead. It was his second round-tripper of the tournament, with his other being a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning against Dominican on Thursday. For his performance, Saxon was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
The one run is all Hines would need, as he surrendered only three hits and two walks to go with 11 strikeouts in improving to 5-1 this season with the victory. His counterpart, junior righty Brian Craig, also allowed only three hits in eight inning of work, to go with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Caldwell's other two runs came in the seventh inning. Senior catcher Chris Chiarappa started things with a walk and he was sacrificed to second base by Saxon. Sophomore center fielder Omar Velazquez followed with a walk to put runners on first and second with one out. Junior Jorge Torres then stepped to the plate as a pinch hitter and calmly sent a single to right field, scoring Chiarappa. Freshman shortstop Edgar Santos followed with an RBI groundout, allowing Velazquez to score.
Chiarappa and starting pitchers Robert Casal, Stephen Pfeil and Hines were named to the All-Tournament team for Caldwell. In the three games the Cougars played, the starting pitchers worked 25.2 innings and allowed a total of two earned runs and 11 hits, while fanning 28 and walking eight batters. The Cougars used only five total pitchers in their three victories.
The All-Tournament selections for Dominican were starting pitchers Michael Mondesir and Tom Kahl, and senior outfielder Sean Brown.
The field and host for the NCAA Regional will be announced on Monday. The All-Tournament team and results of the 2008 CACC Baseball Tournament are below.
Thursday May 8th - at Frawley Stadium
Game 1 #2 Caldwell 6, #3 Dominican 5 (10 innings)
Game 2 #1 Philadelphia 13, #4 Felician 0
Game 3 Dominican 7, Felician 1
Saturday, May 10th - at Wilson Stadium
Game 4 Caldwell 2, Philadelphia 0
Game 5 Dominican 7, Philadelphia 1
Sunday, May 11th-at Wilson Stadium
Game 6 Caldwell 3, Dominican 0
All-Tournament Team
Adric Saxon, Caldwell--MVP
Eric Hines, Caldwell
Robert Casal, Caldwell
Stephen Pfeil, Caldwell
Chris Chiarappa, Caldwell
Michael Mondesir, Dominican
Sean Brown, Dominican
Tom Kahl, Dominican
Jared Farbman, Philadelphia
JungMin Lee, Philadelphia
Hector Bello, Felician