May 14, 2008

Malone Baseball To Host NCCAA East Region Tournament This Week

The Malone College baseball team, led by fifth-year head coach Tom Crank, will host the NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) East Region Tournament Thursday, May 15th and Friday, May 16th at Thurman Munson Stadium.
 
The Pioneers concluded the regular season with a 36-11 overall record and a 21-5 mark in the American Mideast Conference.  The squad then hosted the NAIA Region IX Tournament last week but was eliminated from NAIA postseason contention after dropping single, nine-inning contests to Urbana University and Mt. Vernon Nazarene University.  Malone (36-13 overall), ranked #2 in the most recent NCCAA National ratings, will now look to earn an automatic bid to the NCCAA National Tournament as it hosts the three-team NCCAA East Region Tournament against Nyack (NY) College (12-27 overall, ranked 13th in NCCAA) and NAIA Region IX runner-up Mt. Vernon Nazarene (33-18 overall, ranked third in NCCAA). 
 
The event, which features seven-inning games, will begin on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. with #2 seed Mt. Vernon Nazarene facing third-seeded Nyack.  Top-seeded Malone will then face the loser of game one at 1:30 p.m. and the winner of game one at 4:00 p.m.  If the loser of game one falls to Malone in game two, it is eliminated; and the two remaining teams (Malone and the winner of game one) will play a best two-out-of-three series to determine the champion. 
    
If all teams have one loss after game three on Thursday, the match-up for game four at 11:00 a.m. on Friday will be determined by a coin flip.  The winner of the coin flip receives a bye into Friday’s championship game while the two remaining teams will face off in game four.  The winner of game four advances to the championship game on Friday at 1:30 p.m. (where it would face the coin-flip winner).
 
The NCCAA East Region Champion automatically qualifies for the NCCAA National Tournament which will be held at Bob Cene Park in Struthers, Ohio May 21-24.  Malone last competed in the NCCAA postseason in 2006 when it won its first NCCAA National Title.
    
Below is a look at the tournament schedule: 
Game One (Thursday at 11:00 a.m.) - Mt. Vernon Nazarene vs. Nyack
Game Two (Thursday at 1:30 p.m.) - Malone vs. loser of game one
Game Three (Thursday at 4:00 p.m.) - Malone vs. winner of game one
Game Four (Friday at 11:00 a.m.) - TBD
Game Five (Friday at 1:30 p.m.) – TBD
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