Baseball Earns Nod To ECAC New England Baseball Tournament

Cape Cod, MA --- Worcester State has been selected as the third seed and will play on the road at #6 Coast Guard in this week's upcoming ECAC Division III New England Baseball tournament. The contest, which will be on Wednesday at 3 PM, marks the first time that either opponent has played each other.

The winner will advance to the semifinals and play the victor of the matchup between #2 Brandeis and seventh-seeded Anna Maria. The other bracket includes top-seeded Endicott entertaining #8 Becker and fourth-seeded Wentworth hosting #6 Suffolk.

Worcester State sports an overall record of 23-14 and enters the eight-team field off an 8-7 setback to Westfield State in the semifinal elimination game to of this past weekend's MASCAC Baseball Tournament.

The Lancers are led by MASCAC Player of the Year, senior Corey McDonald (Hudson, MA) who leads the conference in batting (.460) while he has 40 runs scored, five homers and 26 RBIs. Fourth-year Nick Fluegge (Ware, MA) has been solid at first-base as he is second on the team in batting (.370) with nine homers and 37 runs driven in.

Senior teammates Chad Kasik (Dudley, MA) and Bobby DeVito (Webster, MA) are a combined 10-3 in the rotation, fanning 99 in 100.1 innings while sophomore Shaun Slattery (Gardner, MA) has a 3-2 mark, a 1.57 earned run average (5 ER in 28.2 innings) and a school-record nine saves out of the bullpen.

The Bears, who were NEWMAC Tournament semifinalists, sport an overall mark of 20-15. They are paced by sophomore Mike Massero (Seawell, NJ), who has a .342 average, with eight doubles and 28 RBIs. Junior Eddie Kalankiewicz (San Diego, CA) also is hitting at a .345 clip with a squad best 40 base-knocks, 36 for singles.

Second-year Mike Toll (Olney, MD) tops the rotation with a 5-1 record and 29 strikeouts in 52 innings and a 4.33 ERA. Classmate Tyler Viera (Dumfries, VA) is 2-2 with seven saves and a 2.11 ERA to go along with 18 strikeouts in 21.1 innings.

WSU is 6-5 overall in the ECAC Tournament with appearances in 1978, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2008. The Lancers were finalists in 1999, losing to Springfield 13-12, again in 2001, losing to MCLA, 13-10, and in 2008 as they were handed a 10-1 setback by cross-town rival WPI in the championship game.