Championship Program La Plume, PA – Keystone College's baseball team opens up the Colonial States Athletic Conference playoffs this afternoon as the Giants look for their seventh-consecutive CSAC title and 11
th overall conference title in a row. Keystone, the #2 seed in this year's double-elimination tournament, will host #3 Neumann University in a first round game starting at 3:00 p.m. at Christy Mathewson Field.
Keystone (28-12) enters the postseason having lost just two of their last 15 contests. The Giants overcame a 0-3 start in league play to finish in a tie for first place in the league standing with Marywood University (20-9), as both clubs ended the regular season with identical, 12-6 marks in CSAC play. Marywood claimed the top seed in this year's tournament by winning two of the three meetings between the Giants and Pacers.
Just one game separated the top four teams in the CSAC standings this year as Neumann (18-13-1) and Immaculata University (17-14) tied for third with 11-7 records in conference play. The Knights took two of three from the Mighty Macs during the regular season to claim the third seed.
Keystone is powered by nine players who earned All-CSAC honors, led by First Team pitchers
Felix Baez (San Juan, PR/Colegio Presbiteriano), who was named the conference's Pitcher of the Year, and
James Dunning (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) along with battery mate
Alex Herceg (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial), who was also selected First Team All-CSAC as a catcher. Infielder
Julian Lanfranco (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) along with outfielders
Gaston Rojas (Carmel, NY/Carmel) and
Eduardo Familia (Bronx, NY/Collegio Utesianode Estudios Integrados), were also First Team All-Conference honorees.
The Giants also boast a pair of Second Team All-CSAC honorees in first baseman
Kevin Luciano (Everett, MA/Cambridge Rindge and Latin School) and utility player
Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) while infielder
Nate Ross (Albuquerque, NM/La Cueva) garnered Honorable Mention All-CSAC honors.
#1 Marywood will host #4 Immaculata at the same time Keystone takes on Neumann on Thursday. The winners of Thursday's first round games will meet at Marywood on Friday morning at 10:30 while the two losers will play an elimination game at Keystone at the same time. Another elimination game will be played at approximately 3:30 p.m. at Marywood on Friday between the remaining 1-1 teams with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship round at Marywood which is scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.
The winner of the CSAC Championships earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Championships.
