Salve Regina captures regular-season baseball title; earns top seed in CCC tournament
INTERACTIVE BRACKET | PRINTABLE BRACKET
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Nationally-ranked Salve Regina University will look to defend its Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) title this year as the No. 1 seed in the 2017 CCC Baseball Championship Tournament. Salve Regina, which ranked No. 13 in the latest ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Poll and No. 18 in the NCBWA/D3baseball.com Top 25, finished the regular season with a 14-2 CCC (30-7 overall) record.
Last season, the Seahawks traversed through the tournament as the No. 4 seed beating No. 3 seed Nichols, No. 6 seed Curry, No. 1 seed Western New England, and No. 2 seed Endicott (twice) en route to the title.
The CCC runner-up from a year ago, Endicott, will be the No. 2 seed in the 2017 Championship. The Gulls finished the regular season at 11-5 in the CCC (22-15 overall). Both the Seahawks and Gulls will host games on Saturday, May 6.
The four final CCC Tournament contenders will begin their postseason journey on Friday, May 5. No. 3 Western New England will host No. 6 seed Gordon in one of the games on Friday, while No. 4 Curry will host No. 5 Nichols. Both games are scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
Both Western New England and Curry finished with 10-6 CCC records meaning the league's tiebreaking procedure was needed to determine seeding. The Golden Bears were awarded the No. 3 seed thanks to their sweep of the Colonels during the regular season. Nichols earned the No. 5 seed with a 9-7 CCC (20-17 overall) record and Gordon finished at 6-10 in conference (11-20 overall).
This year's double-elimination bracket features a new Championship format. The six teams will be broken into two pods with the No. 1, No. 4, and No. 5 seeds in one group and the No. 2, No. 3, and No.6 seeds in the other.
Curry and Nichols will move on to Salve Regina on Saturday with the winner playing the host Seahawks. The two losers in the pod will then play each other in an elimination game. The same scenario will happen on the other side of the bracket with the WNE-Gordon winner playing Endicott followed by the two losers playing to remain in the tournament. Game times will be announced after the Friday contests.
The two remaining teams in each pod will play each other on Sunday, May 7. If the undefeated team in the pod loses, an "if necessary" game will be played on the same day.
The winners of the two pods will advance to the CCC Championship Series the following weekend. The series will be a best-of-three with the first game taking place on Friday, May 12 and the second and "if necessary" games taking place on Saturday, May 13.
The winner of the CCC Championship Series will be named the CCC Tournament Champion and will earn the league's automatic qualifier into the 2017 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Tournament.
Tournament Schedule
Day 1 – Friday, May 5
(Games 1-2, Hosted by higher seeds)
Game 1 - #5 Nichols at #4 Curry, 3 p.m.
Game 2 - #6 Gordon at #3 Western New England, 3 p.m.
Day 2 – Saturday, May 6
Game 3 - Game 1 Winner at #1 Salve Regina, TBA
Game 4 – Game 2 Winner at #2 Endicott, TBA
Game 5 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 3 Loser, TBA (at Salve Regina)
Game 6 – Game 2 Loser vs. Game 4 Loser, TBA (at Endicott)
Day 3 – Sunday, May 7
Game 7 - Game 3 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner, TBA (at higher seed)
Game 8 - Game 4 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner, TBA (at higher seed)
Game 9 - Game 7 Opponents (if necessary), TBA (at Game 7 site)
Game 10 - Game 8 Opponents (if necessary), TBA (at Game 8 site)
CCC Championship Series
(Hosted by highest remaining seed)
Friday, May 12
Game A - Winner Game 7/9 vs. Winner Game 8/10, TBA
Saturday, May 13
Game B - Championship Opponents, TBA
Game C - Championship Opponents (if necessary), TBA
ABOUT THE COMMONWEALTH COAST CONFERENCE
The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), founded in 1984, is an NCAA Division III athletic conference comprised of ten full member and three associate member institutions throughout the New England region. Its membership aims to provide student-athletes with a positive experience in their pursuit of excellence through high academic standards, quality competition, and a meaningful student life. The conference currently administers championships in 16 intercollegiate sports with that number set to increase next year with the addition of football.