Trinity will bring a national record to the NCAA Division 3 College World Series.
Chandler Barnard fired a four-hitter, drove in three runs, and scored three yesterday as the Bantams routed Southern Maine, 10-3, in Harwich to win the New England Regional.
Trinity (41-0) set the Division 3 record for consecutive wins in a season. (Marietta won 40 in a row in 1999.) The Bantams will play SUNY Cortland (43-2), the New York Regional winner, Friday in Appleton, Wis. The Red Dragons handed Trinity its most recent defeat when it knocked the Bantams out of the NCAA regionals last year.
Barnard (10-0) helped Trinity take a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second. He hit a two-run double, then scored on a single by Tim Bourdon.
Ryan Piacentini led off the Bantams' four-run third inning with a homer to left field. North Reading's Matt Sullivan also drove in a run in the fourth.
Anthony D'Alfonso hit a solo homer and Ryan Pike drove in two runs for Southern Maine (36-14).
NCAA Division 2 baseball - Northeast-10 foes Bryant, which eliminated Caldwell yesterday, and Franklin Pierce will vie today in Rindge, N.H., for the Northeast Regional title.
Jeff Vigurs singled in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth after the Bulldogs tied it on a throwing error by pitcher Buddy Riggs, as Bryant held on for a 5-4 victory.
Bryant will need to defeat Franklin Pierce twice today to advance to the Division 2 World Series. Rain prevented the teams from taking the field after Bryant's win yesterday.
Men's lacrosse
NCAA Division 1 quarterfinals - Duke and Syracuse are Foxborough-bound.
The Blue Devils and Orange won in Ithaca, N.Y., to advance to semifinals Saturday at Gillette Stadium.
Zack Greer's career-high 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) led the top-ranked Blue Devils (18-1) to a 21-10 victory over Ohio State. Duke, which set a national record with its 18th win, will take on Johns Hopkins Saturday.
Dan Hardy scored three goals and added an assist for the Orange, who withstood Notre Dame, 11-9. Syracuse (14-2) will play Virginia Saturday.
Tennis
NCAA Division 3 - Amherst's doubles team of Alicia Menezes and Brittany Berckes won its second straight national championship, beating Denison's Kristin Cobb and Marta Drane, 6-4, 6-3, in the final in St. Peter, Minn. In the singles final, Cary Gibson of Williams rallied from a 5-1 deficit to force a third set before falling to Pomona-Pitzer's Siobhan Finicane, who hails from Brimfield, Mass., 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 . . . In the men's tournament in Lewiston, Maine, Middlebury's Filip Marinkovic started well before falling, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, to Kenyon's Michael Greenberg in the singles final. In a doubles semifinal, the Bates team of Amrit Rupasinghe and Ben Stein lost to Gustavus Adolphus's Andy Bryan and Charlie Paukert, 7-5, 6-4.
