Story Courtesy of NEACSports.com
GANSEVOORT, N.Y. – With a 17-1 conference record and a .944 winning percentage, Penn State Berks has claimed the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) baseball regular season championship and will serve as the host for the Final Four portion of the championship tournament on May 11-13.
Inclement weather throughout much of the spring made it difficult for teams throughout the NEAC to complete the regular season schedule. As teams played an uneven number of games, tournament seeding was determined by winning percentage in conference games. The top six teams will advance to the postseason with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receiving a first-round bye.
This is the third regular season title for Penn State Berks and first since the 2012 season. The defending conference champions lead the NEAC in a number of categories including batting average (.350), on-base percentage (.461) and slugging percentage (.499).
Penn State Abington finished with a 12-4 record and Penn College went 9-3 in NEAC games, leaving both teams with a .750 winning percentage. With no head-to-head contests between the two teams, conference tiebreaking procedures turned to results against common opponents in descending order. Penn College posted a 2-0 record against Lancaster Bible while Penn State Abington went 1-1 versus the Chargers. Therefore, Penn College was awarded the No. 2 seed and Penn State Abington will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed.
Keuka College went 11-6 (.647) to earn the No. 4 seed while a 9-7 record (.563) gave Lancaster Bible the No. 5 seed. SUNY Poly rounds out the tournament field as the No. 6 seed with a 6-7 conference record (.462).
This year’s tournament will feature a pair of first round matches on Tuesday with the No. 6 seed traveling to the No. 3 seed and the No. 5 seed heading to the No. 4 seed. First round contests will be a single nine-inning game. The winners of first round games will advance to a four-team, double-elimination tournament scheduled to begin on Friday at noon at Penn State Berks’ Hintz Athletic Fields.
NEAC Baseball First Round – Tuesday, May 8
No. 6 SUNY Poly @ No. 3 Penn State Abington
No. 5 Lancaster Bible @ No. 4 Keuka College
