As expected, North Atlantic Conference champion University of Maine was picked as the top seed for the eight-team, double-elimination ECAC Tournament, which the Black Bears will host on May 15-18.

Maine, which won the conference with a 14-1 mark, is now 37-14 overall and protected its national ranking (15th in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine-ESPN poll, 25th in the Baseball America poll).

Maine will play the eighth seed, either Mount St. Mary’s College (Md.) or Monmouth College (N.J.), in the 7 p.m. game on May 15. Mount St. Mary’s, 15-18 overall and 8-6 in the Northeast Conference, and Monmouth, 15-17-1, 9-5, will decide their conference title in a 1 p.m. makeup game Saturday at Monmouth.

NAC runnerup Northeastern was seeded third as one of the two at-large teams by the eight-member ECAC selection committee. NU is 27-11 overall and wound up 12-3 in the NAC.

Seeded second between Maine and Northeastern is defending champ Fordham, which has won three of the last four ECAC crowns. Fordham is 30-12 overall and won the Patriot League with a 12-3 mark.

The fourth seed is LeMoyne College, 25-13 and the winner of the MAAC North (12-5 league mark) followed by Patriot League runnerup and at-large selection Holy Cross, 18-13-1, 11-4; MAAC South champ Fairfield University, 20-15-2, 13-3; Diamond Conference champ C.W. Post (N.Y.), 21-17-1, 9-3; and either Mount St. Mary’s or Monmouth.

Northeastern and Fairfield will open the tourney at 10 a.m. on May 15, Fordham and C.W. Post will play at 1 p.m., the LeMoyne-Holy Cross game will start at 4 p.m., with the Maine game to follow.

“Nothing surprised me among the top three,” said Maine Coach John Winkin. “I was a little surprised at some of the others.”

Winkin’s Bears will tune up with a five-game home series against former Bear two-sport standout Jack Leggett’s Western Carolina club this weekend.

“The great advantage of a five-game set against Western Carolina is that we’ll have the opportunity to use our top five starters (Larry Thomas, Ben Burlingame, Mike D’Andrea, Ed Therrien, and Jason Dryswak) and our relievers,” said Winkin. “When you’ve got eight teams playing for a championship in four days, pitching depth has to get you through.”