Baseball Plays At Wagner This Weekend With NEC Tournament Spot On The Line

Quinnipiac University Bobcats (14-35, 13-15 NEC) at
Wagner College Seahawks (21-29, 13-15 NEC)
May 20-22, 2010
Richmond County Bank Ballpark - Staten Island, N.Y.

Last NEC Series Of The Year
Quinnipiac will head to Staten Island, N.Y. this weekend to take on Wagner in a four-game Northeast Conference series at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The Bobcats and Seahawks will play a nine-inning game on Thursday, May 20 at 7 p.m., followed by a pair of seven-inning games on Saturday, May 21 starting at 12 p.m., with the second game starting 30 minutes after the completion of the first game. The final game of the series will be a nine-inning showdown at 12 p.m. Quinnipiac and Wagner are both 13-15 in the Northeast Conference, and tied for fourth place in the conference standings. Live statistics, courtesy of Wagner Athletics, are available.

Northeast Conference Playoff Picture
Bryant (22-6) sits in first place in the NEC standings but are not eligible to play in the 2010 NEC Tournament. Sacred Heart (19-9) became the first team in the NEC to clinch a tournament spot after sweeping a four-game series against Monmouth last weekend. Central Connecticut (15-13), Quinnipiac, Monmouth and Wagner (all at 13-15) follow Sacred Heart and will play for the final three spots in next weekend's tournament. This weekend, Quinnipiac travels to Wagner, Sacred Heart and Bryant faceoff, Central Connecticut faces Long Island, and Monmouth plays Fairleigh Dickinson.

Scouting Wagner
Wagner jumped out to an early lead in the NEC standings, producing an 11-5 mark after its first four NEC series against Long Island (4-0), Mount St. Mary's (1-3), Fairleigh Dickinson (3-1) and Monmouth (3-1). Since then, the Seahawks have lost 10 of 12 against the top three teams in the NEC in Bryant (0-4), Sacred Heart (1-3) and Central Connecticut (1-3). Vin Avella leads Wagner in average (.317), hits (57), runs scored (44), homeruns (15), RBI (52) and slugging percentage (.639).