MANSFIELD, Conn. – A little hustle and a lot of right-hander Chad Rafferty proved too much for the Bowdoin College baseball team.

Rafferty, named to the All-New England team earlier in the day, struck out 13 in a route-going effort Wednesday night to lead second-seeded St. Joseph’s College to a 2-0 win over the No. 7 Polar Bears in the opening game of the NCAA Division III New England Regionals at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The Monks (38-5) advance to the winners’ bracket against Trinity College at 7:45 tonight while Bowdoin (25-19) will try to stave off elimination against the University of Southern Maine at 1:15 p.m. The Huskies lost to Trinity Wednesday, 13-8.

Rafferty (10-0), engaged in a pitchers’ duel with NESCAC Pitcher of the Year Oliver Van Zant, allowed seven singles and walked one. He threw 136 pitches, 88 for strikes.

“I tried to get ahead with my fastball to start but all my stuff was working right from the get-go,” Rafferty said. “My curveball was on, my slider was on and my change-up got better as the game went along.”

Van Zant (5-3) also went the distance. The junior right-hander yielded five hits, walked four and struck out five.

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Rafferty, pitcher of the year in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference as a junior, retired the first 10 Polar Bears before Jordan Edgett dumped a single behind second with one out in the fourth. Dan Findley reached on an infield hit with two outs but Rafferty struck out Luke Regan looking.

Bowdoin put runners on the corners with one out in the sixth, but Rafferty set down the next two hitters.

Pinch-hitter Andrew Belmonte started the Polar Bears’ eighth with a line drive to center but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double. John Lefeber followed with a hit, but Rafferty again was up to the task.

The Polar Bears brought the tying run to the plate when Lefeber started the ninth with a single but Rafferty retired the final three hitters, two on strikes.

“It’s a dominant performance really by both guys but Chad was just a little bit better and that’s what we needed him to do,” said St. Joseph’s Coach Will Sanborn.

“We anticipated a low-scoring game.”

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Dan Achorn’s hustle enabled the Monks to take a 2-0 lead in the fifth without a hit.

Dan Brown and Sam Butts worked Van Zant for walks. Brendon Chase sacrificed them into scoring position and Nate Martin was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Achorn chopped an RBI grounder to second to force Martin, but beat out the double-play bid. As Bowdoin debated the call at first, Butts rounded third and kept on coming.

“That’s a play we work on all the time,” Sanborn said. “We scored two runs a year ago in our conference tournament like that. We just keep those guys wheeling.”

The teams played once during the regular season with Bowdoin prevailing 9-4 on April 9.

TRINITY COLLEGE 13, USM 8: Third-seeded Trinity College took the lead for good with a five-run fifth inning Wednesday in defeating sixth-seeded University of Southern Maine 13-8 in an NCAA Division III Regional baseball opener at Mansfield, Conn.

In the fifth, the Bantams (33-9) scored two runs on a hit batsman and three consecutive hits (a double and two singles). Bryan Ginsberg followed with a three-run homer for a 10-6 lead.

Southern Maine (27-18) will play Bowdoin in an elimination game at 1:15 p.m. today.

 


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