By Sun Journal staff

HARWICH, Mass. – The St. Joseph’s baseball team rallied from a six-run deficit to take a 9-7 victory over Bowdoin in Game 2 of the NCAA Baseball Regional Wednesday afternoon.

Bowdoin jumped out early, building a 5-0 lead after two innings. The Polar Bears (28-9-1) added a run in the third, pushing the lead to 6-0, as Mike Buckley brought home Joe Berte on a suicide squeeze bunt.

The Monks (34-8-1) began their rally in the bottom of the third. Jake Rodden scored on a throwing error, and an RBI double by Luke Enman plated Mark Clapp. St. Joseph’s put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth, cutting the lead to 6-4. Later in the frame, Clapp chased Ricky Leclerc off the mound with a run-scoring double, bringing home Wade Oliver to cut the score to 6-5 after four innings of play.

St. Joseph’s took its first lead in the seventh when Enman belted a home run off reliever Mark Bulger’s first pitch. Brian Schools connected on a two-run homer off Bulger in the bottom of the eighth, pushing the lead to 9-6.

Bowdoin attempted to rally in the ninth, as a two-out single by Jared Lemieux scored Chris McCann cut it to 9-7 before Leclerc grounded out to end the game. St. Joseph’s starter Charlie Furbush settled down after the rough start, allowing just two hits after the third inning and striking out 10 in a complete game. Bulger was tagged with the loss.

Salem State 8, USM 5

HARWICH, Mass. – Mike Adsessa belted out a two-run homer as part of a four-run eighth inning as fourth-seeded Salem State outlasted fifth-seeded University of Southern Maine 8-5 in the first game of the 2006 NCAA Division III New England Regional Baseball Tournament Wednesday.

Trailing throughout the first seven innings, the Huskies (29-16) went ahead 5-4 in the top of the eighth on a two-run home to right field run by Ryan Bourque. Bourque’s home run scored Eddie Skeffington, who reached safley on an infield single to start the inning.

The Vikings (34-6) came back in the bottom of the inning to seal the win. Rob Celentano reached on a bloop single to right field and moved to second on a walk to Ryan Lafflin. Celentano and Lafflin scored on a two-run double from Jason Sablone to put the Vikings up 6-5. The Vikings added a pair of insurance runs on Addessa’s second home run of the season.

The Huskies threatened in the top of the ninth, loading the bases with one out on a pinch-hit single by Brent Lemieux, a walk to Nick Vadaro and a single by Skeffington. Salem State closer Scott Lynch got the final two outs to end the USM rally.

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