February 9, 2006

NEW HAVEN, CT - New Jersey Institute of Technology, the 2005 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference regular season baseball champion, was picked to finish second in 2006 preseason voting by the 10 CACC coaches.

NJIT, which won its first CACC regular season title with an 18-6 conference record in 2005, was edged out of the 2006 favorite's role by 2005 CACC Tournament and Eastern College Athletic Conference champion Dominican. NJIT, which was 22-20 a season ago, was picked first on one coach's ballot and received 86 points.

Dominican (NY), which was 16-8 in conference play in 2005 and then defeated NJIT for both the CACC and ECAC postseason titles last spring, was picked to finish first on seven of the 10 coaches' 2006 preseason ballots. With points awarded on a basis of 10 for first place, nine for second place, eight for third, and so on, Dominican had 95 points in the balloting.

Wilmington, 15-9 in the CACC in 2005, got a first-place vote and was picked third overall, while Caldwell, 14-7 last year in the CACC, also garnered a pick for the top spot and had 70 points in the balloting, good for fourth.

None of the other six teams in the CACC collected a first-place vote. The rest of the coaches' forecast found Felician picked to finish fifth, followed by CACC newcomer Philadelphia (sixth), Bloomfield (seventh), Post (eighth), Nyack (ninth) and USP (10th).

The 2006 Highlanders are scheduled to open play with a March 4 non-conference home doubleheader starting at 1 pm against East Stroudsburg.