Field Set For 2018 ECC Baseball Championship To Be Hosted By Molloy College

West Babylon, N.Y. - The bracket for the East Coast Conference Baseball Championship was finalized during the final weekend of the regular season. For the second year in a row, Bridgeport, LIU Post, Molloy, and St. Thomas Aquinas are the four teams that will compete for an ECC title and an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Championship.

The tournament, hosted by Molloy College at Mitchel Field in Uniondale, N.Y. for the third time in four seasons, begins on Thursday, May 10 and runs through Saturday, May 12.

St. Thomas Aquinas (33-12, 18-5 ECC) won at least a share of the ECC Regular Season Championshio for the third straight year and the fifth time in seven seasons to claim the top seed in the conference tournament. The Spartans, who are the defending East Region Champions, are in the bracket for a league-high 11th straight year and are in search of their first ECC title since 2015.

No. 4 seed Bridgeport (14-32, 11-13 ECC) will be the Spartans' opponent in the opening game of the tournament. After compiling a 4-28 record to start the season, the Purple Knights ended the season on a hot streak, winning 10 of their final 13 conference games to earn the final spot in the tournament. Bridgeport, who has been the runner-up in five of the last seven ECC Championships, are still in search of their first-ever conference championship.

STAC took three of the four matchups between the two schools in the regular season but a win for Bridgeport in the series finale started their 10-3 run towards claiming a spot in the tournament for the eighth straight season.

Molloy (29-19, 18-6 ECC), the tournament host, will be the No. 2 seed. The Lions, who could still claim a share of the league's Regular Season Championship if St. Thomas Aquinas loses their final ECC game on Monday evening, are making their third straight championship appearance and fifth in six seasons. Molloy is looking to end a 16 year championship drought, as they last won an ECC title in 2001.

LIU Post (27-18, 15-8 ECC) will be the No. 3 seed and take on Molloy. The matchup will be a rematch of last year's final. The Pioneers came out on top in the matchup to claim the third ECC Championship in program history.  

The Lions took three of the four games between the two Long Island rivals during the regular season. Two of the three wins came by one run, while the third was decided by two runs.

The tournament will begin with the Bridgeport vs. St. Thomas Aquinas matchup at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. LIU Post and Molloy will follow at 3:00 p.m.

All games during the championship will be broadcast live on the ECC Network website and the ECC Network OTT app on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku.  To read Twitter updates throughout the tournament, follow @ECCSports. To see video highlights from all games, follow @ECCSportsNet on Twitter. Tournament recaps, live stats, box scores and all other pertinent tournament information will also be available on www.eccsports.org at the tournament central web page.

2018 ECC Baseball Championship hosted by Molloy College at Mitchel Field - Uniondale, N.Y.
Thursday, May 10
12:00 PM - No. 4 Bridgeport vs. No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas
3:00 PM - No. 3 LIU Post vs. No. 2 Molloy

Friday, May 11
9:30 a.m. - Loser Game One vs. Loser Game Two
12:30 p.m. - Winner Game One vs. Winner Game Two
3:30 p.m. - Winner Game Three vs. Loser Game Four

Saturday, May 12
12:00 p.m. - Winner Game Four vs. Winner Game Five
If necessary - 30 minutes after the completion of Game Six