HOBOKEN, N.J. (May 9, 2014) – The Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team will play for the CUNYAC Championship on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Baruch College at MCU Park in Brooklyn, N.Y. for the conference's first-ever automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Stevens (25-13) reached the title game with wins over Baruch on May 7 in Hoboken by a 6-2 score and defeated the College of Staten Island yesterday at MCU Park, 3-0. After Wednesday's loss to the Ducks, Baruch (13-22) staved off elimination by defeating John Jay College, 11-4, and Staten Island, 5-4, yesterday to find a spot in Saturday's contest.

Tomorrow's first pitch will be thrown at 1 p.m., and if the Ducks win, they will be the conference champions and reached the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2002. If Baruch prevails, an all-or-nothing showdown will take place at approximately 4 p.m. for the automatic bid.

Fans that are unable to attend can follow action via live stats, Twitter updates or a possible webcast/audio feed on Empire8.tv. More information on the webcast/audio will be sent out tomorrow.

Also, a fan bus will depart Stevens' campus at 11 a.m. tomorrow from Jonas Hall. Any students, faculty/staff, or avid Ducks fans are welcome to take the bus over to Brooklyn.

Please email Mike Lippencott (michael.lippencott@stevens.edu) by 4 p.m. today if you plan on taking the bus so appropriate accommodations may be made.

Tomorrow's Championship Game:

On Wednesday, Stevens used homeruns from senior Dan Allen (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) and sophomore Nicholas Sieber (Shrewsbury, Mass.) to top Baruch, 6-2, at Dobbelaar Field. The Ducks scored two runs in three consecutive innings to turn a 2-0 deficit into a four-run victory. Sophomore Greg Jakusik (The Woodlands, Texas) was stellar on the mound for Stevens, striking out 11 Bearcats over 6.2 innings pitched while allowing just three hits.

Yesterday, the Ducks witnessed a terrific four-hit shutout performance from sophomore Jayson Yano (Foothill Ranch, Calif.) in the 3-0 win over Staten Island to secure a spot in tomorrow's title game. Yano struck out six batters and produced 15 groundball outs on the hill. He also drove in a run, scored another and stole one base. Allen and Sieber once again dealt big blows in the batter's box, with an RBI triple and RBI double, respectively.

Baruch's Angel Tejeda drove in four runs on a pair of doubles in the Bearcats 11-4 triumph over John Jay to open Thursday's action. Zachary Uher went 3-for-5 at the plate with three RBI, while Nicholas Pomo-Roman also batted 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Andrew Lizardi fired a complete game for Baruch and fanned 10 batters for the victory.

The Bearcats carried their momentum over to their 5-4 win against top-seeded Staten Island to set up their fourth meeting with Stevens tomorrow. Pomo-Roman tallied two RBI, while Tejeda stroked an RBI triple. Philip Loprete went 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored and a run batted in. Uher threw another complete game for Baruch, striking out four.

Fourth Showdown in 2014:

Tomorrow marks the fourth time Stevens and Baruch have battled on the diamond this season. Stevens has won all three contests by a combined score of 11-2. The Ducks shutout the Bearcats, 1-0 and 4-0, in the two regular season meetings this year on March 15 and April 22.

One of the Best Staffs in Division III:

Stevens has a surplus of arms it can throw out on the mound tomorrow which has led the staff to arguably one of the best in the country. In the latest Division III statistical rankings, Stevens holds the top strikeouts-per-nine innings spot out of 350 teams with 9.9 per contest. The Ducks are also second nationally in hits allowed-per-nine innings (7.23), third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.19), fourth in earned run average (2.25) and sixth in walks/hits-per-innings pitched – WHIP (1.15).

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