2004 NCAA Division III Baseball New England Regional
2004 Tournament Statistics
Summary Stats
Team Stats
Individual Stats
Amherst
Babson
Bridgewater State (Mass)
Eastern Conn State
Endicott
Western New England
Behind Bongiovanni, Wildman, Warriors become first team to win threeNew England Regional Championships in row
MANSFIELD, Conn. - Senior left-handed pitcher Ty Bongiovanni allowed just three runs over seven innings in his first start in a month and senior rightfielder Dwight Wildman drove in five runs as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team became the first team to win three straight NCAA Division III New England Regional Championships with a 9-3 win over Bridgewater State College.
Bongiovanni (2-3) won his second post-season game in nine days, pitching into the eighth inning before giving way to senior All-America righty Joey Serfass. Serfass earned his second save by getting the final six outs as the Warriors became the first team in the 29-year history of the New England Regional Tournament to win three straight titles. It was Bongiovanni's longest stint since his freshman season in 2001.
Leading 5-3, Eastern blew the game open with four insurance runs in the ninth. The Warriors sent nine batters to the plate in the inning, with Wildman driving in two runs with a single and freshman centerfielder Randy Re plating two with a two-run double. The win is the tenth straight for top-seeded Eastern (39-9), which defeated fourth-seeded Bridgewater State (26-16) for the second straight year in the championship round.
"This is a special group of seniors, praised 36th-year head coach Bill Holowaty of his eight seniors. "They refuse to lose. It's not easy to go to the world series three times in a row. It's been quite a run."
In the final, Wildman was 3-for-3 with a walk, sacrifice fly and double, drove in five runs and scored one. After replacing injured Scott Hayward in the first inning of Saturday's 19-3 win over Bridgewater, Re was 7-for-12 in two games against Bridgewater with six RBI, three runs, a home run, two doubles and two stolen bases. In the final, he was 4-for-5 with three RBI.
Bongiovanni, whose last start had come April 19 against Montclair State, had pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings when summoned in the first inning of last Saturday's Little East Conference 9-3 championship game win over the University of Southern Maine. Against Bridgewater, he scattered five hits while fanning six and walking three. He allowed three runs in the third inning -- two of them earned -- when Bridgewater scrapped back to tie the game 3-3. Serfass was called after Bongiovanni threw two balls to leadoff batter Tim LaConte leading off the eighth. After Serfass completed the walk, Pekrul made the defensive play of the game on Ryan Fitzgerald's long drive when he climbed the left field fence to pull down the blast. The play preserved Eastern's 5-3 lead and the Warriors followed by tacking on their four insurance runs in the top of the ninth.
Bridgewater dug out of an early 3-0 hole by scoring three times in the third on four hits -- Eric Johnson driving in two with a two-out single and Greg Sunderland tying the game with an infield single. Although the Bears made three errors, they turned double plays in four consecutive innings in the middle of the game and capitalized by getting outs when Eastern tried to take additional bases on several occasions.
Wildman was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. In four games, he batted .588 (10-for-17) with eight RBI, six runs, two doubles, a home run, two walks, a sacrifice fly and a .600 on-base percentage. Against Bridgewater, the top three hitters in the lineup -- junior leftfielder Jason Pekrul, senior second baseman Eugene Julien and Wildman -- reached safely 11 times. They were a a combined 7-for-10 with five runs score, five RBI (all by Wildman), three doubles, two walks, hit-by-pitch and a sacrifice fly. Each was named to the all-tournament team.
"This is never a one-person game," noted Wildman, the New England Division III Player-of-the-Year who set program season records for hits and total bases during the tournament. "This team is close, like a family. Everyone played well. Ty pitched a great game."
2004 New England Regional All-Tournament Team
MVP- Dwight Wildman, Eastern Conn State
First Base - Eric Johnson, Bridgewater State (Mass); Second Base - Eugene Julien, Eastern Conn State; Third Base - Tim LaConte, Bridgewater State (Mass); Marc Garofalo, Eastern Conn State; Outfield - Dwight Wildman, Eastern Conn State; Christian Perry, Bridgewater State (Mass); Jason Pekrul, Eastern Conn State; Utility - Matt Bishop, Endicott; Pitcher - Jason Connelly, Western New England; Ryan DiPierto, Eastern Conn State; Nate Horseman, Bridgewater State (Mass); Joey Serfass, Eastern Conn State.
2004 Results
Eastern Conn State 5, Amherst 2
Western New England 3, Endicott 1
Bridgewater State (Mass) 4, Babson 3
Eastern Conn State 8, Babson 0
Bridgewater State (Mass) 4, Western New England 3 (10)
Eastern Conn State 19, Bridgewater State (Mass) 3
Western New England 3, Endicott 1