MAAC Championship Notes
MAAC Championship Central
MAAC Championship Bracket

Fairfield, which enters the tournament as a winner in eight of its last nine, makes its return to the MAAC Championship for the first time in more than a decade and will face No. 2 Canisius on Thursday May 24 at 7pm at Joe Bruno Stadium.

Tickets: Get your tickets to the 2012 MAAC Championship now by visiting MAAC.Ticketleap.com.

On The Web: All the games of the tournament will be streamed live on MAAC.tv. Fans can also listen live on WVOF.org. In addition, Live Stats are available for all games throughout the tournament. Updates will be available via Twitter (@MAACSports, #MAACBaseball) and on Facebook.com/maacsports.

No. 3 Fairfield (27-25; 14-10 MAAC) vs. No. 2 Canisius (31-25; 16-8 MAAC): Fairfield closed out the month of April by taking two out of three games from Canisius at Alumni Diamond. After enduring a 5-2 loss in the opener, Scott Warwick posted a four-hit, complete game shutout with nine strikeouts in the 4-0 victory. In the series finale, the Stags posted a 7-3 victory behind a solid performance by senior pitcher Brett Shulick. Freshman Sebastian Salvo drove in four runs against the Griffs during that series. For his career, Anthony Hajjar is batting .357 with five runs and five RBI against Canisius. Shulick owns a 2.77 ERA in two career appearances while Mark Bordonaro has a 3.00 ERA with two saves in four career appearances against Canisius. Fairfield is 24-21 all-time against Canisius, yet the Griffs have taken 13 of the last 18 meetings.

 A Look at Canisius: The Griffs have won seven of their last eight games entering the MAAC Championship, including last week's sweep of Niagara. Canisius has won 16 conference games and recorded at least 30 victories in four out of the last five seasons. Jimmy Luppens leads Canisius with a .356 batting average. Four Griffs have driven in 30+ runs, including Drew Pettit who has 39 RBI. As a team, Canisius is batting a collective .278. The pitching staff yields a 4.77 ERA. Garret Cortright (6-6) has a 3.80 ERA with 69 strikeouts while Devon Stewart (5-4) has a 3.95 ERA with 53 strikeouts. Closer Jon Fitzsimmons (2-1) has a miniscule 0.82 ERA and 11 saves in 22 appearances this season. He has struck out 29 batters in 22 innings of work.

About the MAAC Championship: The double elimination MAAC Championship will be held May 24-27 at Joe Bruno Stadium, home of the Tri-City ValleyCats in Troy, N.Y. Defending MAAC Champion Manhattan College is the tournament's top seed while Canisius College is the second seed. Fairfield is third while Rider University is the fourth seed.

Getting Back to the MAAC: This is the Stags first MAAC Championship appearance since 2000 when the Stags went 17-8 and finished third in the MAAC South to qualify for tournament play.

How They Got Here: Entering the final two series of the regular season, the Stags were jockeying for one of the final two spots in the MAAC Championship. Fairfield helped their chances by sweeping three games from Siena College while Manhattan, Canisius, and Rider all secured their spots. Entering the final series of the season against Marist College, the Stags needed just one win against the Red Foxes. Fairfield, behind rookie starter EJ Ashworth, pulled out a 1-0 victory in the opener on May 17 to clinch a spot. The Stags then walked off with a 3-2 win in extra innings in the season finale to secure the third seed.

Most Wins Ever: The Stags have posted a record-setting 27 victories this season, besting the standard of 26 set in 2000. This is the 13th season in which Fairfield has won at least 20 games.

Fairfield Among the MAAC Leaders: The Stags pitching staff leads the MAAC with a 4.01 ERA with opponents hitting just .272. Fairfield is second in the MAAC in strikeouts with 306 and wins with 27, is third in innings pitched (444.0), and leads the league in pickoffs (15). Individually, senior Scott Warwick leads the league with a 2.80 ERA while freshman EJ Ashworth is fourth with a 2.97 ERA, and senior Brett Shulick is fifth with a 3.33 ERA. Shulick is tied for second in victories (6) while Ashworth is second in pickoffs (4). Offensively, Fairfield is third in runs scored (270), RBI (233), triples (11), is fourth in hits (464), and is fifth in on-base percentage (.354), total bases (.591), and stolen bases (58). Sophomore Ryan Plourde is third in the league in walks (30), fourth in slugging percentage (.514), and fifth in on-base percentage (.437), home runs (6), and total bases (93). Junior Anthony Hajjar is tied for fifth in hits (65) and senior Larry Cornelia is third in stolen bases (25).  Defensively, the Stags lead the MAAC with 51 double plays and stand fourth in fielding percentage (.968). National Notice: In the NCAA Division I national rankings released on May  20, senior Larry Cornelia was ranked 33rd  in the country in stolen bases with 25. His average of 0.47/g per game ranked him 42nd nationally. As a team, Fairfield is ranked 36th in double plays per game (0.96) and 38th in double plays (51).

MAAC Weekly Honors: Junior Anthony Hajjar MAAC  Player of the Week while freshman EJ Ashworth was named the MAAC Pitcher of the Week after helping the Stags clinch a berth in the 2012 MAAC Championship tournament. Hajjar hit .500 (8-for-16), slugged .750, drove in eight runs, including two game-winners, and posted an on-base percentage of .529 to power the Stags to a 3-1 week. Ashworth, meanwhile, turned in a dominant performance against Marist on Thursday, tossing 6.2 scoreless innings, striking out seven batters and scattering four hits to combine for his first career shutout.

Single Season Records: The Stags defense has broken the single season record for double plays (51). The pitching staff has broken the single season record for innings pitched (444.0) and tied the program record for strikeouts with 306 and shutouts in a season with five.