After a one-year hiatus, the Sacred Heart University baseball team is back in the postseason. The fourth-seeded Pioneers will open play in the NEC Championship at 3 p.m. on Wednesday against fifth-seeded LIU. The double-elimination tournament is being held at Heritage Financial Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., home of the New York Yankees high-A, South Atlantic League affiliate, the Hudson Valley Renegades.
 
Sacred Heart is a four-time NEC champion (2006, 2011, 2012, 2015).

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets are available for purchase online at the link above. An all-session pass is available for $30 and is good for the duration of the NEC Championship. Otherwise, admission is available on a per-day basis, at a cost of $10 for adults, or $5 for students, children, senior citizens and members of the armed forces.
 
A LOOK AT THE PIOS
Sacred Heart (25-28, 17-13 NEC) used a series victory over the weekend to finish as the NEC's fourth seed. After dropping Thursday's opener, the Pioneers ended the Warriors' season in convincing fashion with a 13-7, 15-11 doubleheader sweep on Friday. Sam Mongelli bolstered his NEC Player of the Year candidacy with seven home runs last week, including five over three games against Merrimack. He finished the regular season as the league leader in OPS (1.247), slugging percentage (.760) and home runs (20).
 
THE FIELD
The rest of the NEC Championship shakes out as follows: Central Connecticut State (32-11, 25-5 NEC) is the top seed and regular-season champion, followed by second-seeded Wagner (30-22, 21-9 NEC) and third-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson (30-19-1, 20-10 NEC). Behind SHU and LIU (18-34, 16-14 NEC), Maryland Eastern Shore (18-35, 14-16 NEC) rounds out the six-team field, getting in on the final day of the season by virtue of winning a three-way tiebreaker over Merrimack and Coppin State.
 
As would be expected, SHU played competitive series against nearly all the teams involved, with the only sweep in either direction coming at the hands of Wagner, which swept the Pios off their home field in late April. Sacred Heart dropped two out of three on the road at both CCSU and LIU, but also took two out of three at home against both FDU and UMES.
 
SHU AT THE NEC CHAMPIONSHIP
All-time, the Pioneers hold a 25-19 record (.568 winning percentage) over 13 appearances at the NEC Championship. Following its initial conference title in 2006, Sacred Heart qualified for the league tournament in nine straight seasons from 2009 through 2017. The span encompassed the program's remaining three NEC crowns, plus runner-up finishes in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2017, as the Pioneers played in the final round eight times in the nine-year stretch.
 
AGAINST THE COMPETITION
Unsurprisingly, as two of the league's longtime stalwarts, of the teams in the field, SHU has the most NEC Championship experience against intrastate rival CCSU. The Pioneers and the Blue Devils have met 13 times in the league tournament, with CCSU holding a 7-6 edge, including the last four postseason meetings between the two. The two teams have met in the final round three times, with CCSU claiming NEC titles in 2017 and 2010, after the Pioneers took home the 2006 crown.
 
As FDU, LIU and Wagner are all longtime members of the league as well, Sacred Heart also has postseason history with all three. The Pioneers are 5-1 all-time at the NEC Championship against Wagner, but most-recently dropped an 11-7 decision in a 2019 elimination game. SHU has won all three of its tournament games against Wednesday's opponent LIU, including a 5-4 win in an elimination game in 2021. The Pios are 2-1 in the postseason against FDU, but the two have not met in tournament play since 2016.
 
As a first-year league member, this is UMES' first appearance at the NEC Championship.
 
SCHEDULE
The NEC Championship will be contested as a double-elimination tournament, scheduled as follows (seeds in parentheses):
 
Wednesday, May 24
Game 1: (3) Fairleigh Dickinson vs. (6) Maryland Eastern Shore – 11 a.m.
Game 2: (4) Sacred Heart vs. (5) Long Island – 3 p.m.
Game 3: Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser – 7 p.m. (loser eliminated)
 
Thursday, May 25
Game 4: (1) Central Connecticut State vs. Game 1/2 Winner (lower seed) – 11 a.m.
Game 5: (2) Wagner vs. Game 1/2 Winner (higher seed) – 3 p.m.
Game 6: Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4/5 Loser (lower seed) – 7 p.m. (loser eliminated)
 
Friday, May 26
Game 7: Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner – Noon
Game 8: Game 6 Winner vs. Game 4/5 Loser (higher seed) – 4 p.m. (loser eliminated)
 
Saturday, May 27
Game 9: Game 8 Winner vs. Game 7 Loser – Noon (loser eliminated)
Game 10: Game 7 Winner vs. Game 9 Winner – 4 p.m. (Game 9 Winner eliminated with loss)
 
Sunday, May 28
*Game 11: Game 10 rematch – Noon
* Game 11 necessary only if Game 9 Winner wins Game 10.