Mansfield, Conn. - Senior RHP Jeremiah Bayer (Greenfield, Mass.) allowed one hit and one run with seven strikeouts over 4.1 innings of relief to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 5-4 win over the host Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors in the finals of the NCAA Division III New England Regional Baseball Championship Tournament this afternoon at Eastern Connecticut Baseball Stadium.

Trinity, ranked No. 3 in New England and No. 5 in the nation, improves to 33-5 with its seventh straight win advances to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament to defend the national title it won last season in record-breaking fashion with a 45-1 final record.  The No. 3-ranked Eastern Connecticut Warriors finish the season at 39-8.  The Bantams will play Kean University (38-9), which won its NCAA Regional Tournament in New Jersey, on Friday, May 22 at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wisc. in the first game of the 2009 NCAA Division III National Championship Tourney.  Trinity will be making its fourth appearance in the NCAA Division III Nationals, having played in the tournament in 2003 and 2005 prior to winning the title last spring.

Trinity took the lead for good in the third inning, as senior co-captain C Sean Killeen (Greenfield, Mass.) walked and junior 1B Kent Graham (Longmeadow, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base with one out.  After a strikeout by Eastern Connecticut junior starter Will Musson (Wethersfield, Conn.), Bantam senior co-captain 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland, Maine) delivered a game-tying single to center field that scored Killeen.  Trinity freshman DH Kevin Mortimer (Spencer, Mass.) followed with a single to right that plated Graham and gave the Bantams a 4-3 lead. 

In the top of the fifth inning, Bantam junior RHP Conor O'Sullivan-Pierce (Cambridge, Mass.) replaced freshman lefty James Ramsey (Belmont, Mass.) and gave up two hits but recovered to strikeout the next two batters, including Gilblair.  Bayer who tossed a shutout on Friday against No.-6 ranked Southern Maine, entered the game, recorded the third out, and was hit hard just once over the final four innings to improve to 12-0 this spring and 21-0 in his two years as a Bantam. 

"The pitching went pretty much as we planned.  Jim Ramsey did a very good job for four innings, and we had Conor to fill the gap, but the moment came when we felt it was time for Jeremiah," said Trinity Head Coach Bill Decker. 

Trinity added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning on singles by Graham and junior OF James Wood (Windham, Conn.) and a deep fly ball to left-center field that scored Graham easily from third base by Piacentini.  Bayer breezed through the sixth and seventh innings, before Warrior junior 3B Melvin Castillo (Danbury, Conn.) cut the lead to 5-4 on a solo homer to right field.  In the ninth inning, Eastern PH Andrew Dewing (Swampscott, Mass.) reached on a pop-up that dropped in short right field and junior SS John Parke (Middlefield, Conn.) recorded an infield single on a swinging bunt that Bayer bobbled trying to make a quick throw to first.  Bayer fanned his seventh batter of the game to record the second out and Bayer got Eastern Connecticut's senior clean-up hitter Shawn Gilblair (Windham, Conn.) to pop to shortstop on the first pitch to give Trinity the victory, and a chance to win its second straight NCAA Division III World Series crown.

Eastern Connecticut had jumped on Ramsey in the top of the first inning, as junior SS Travis Bass (West Hartford, Conn.) and Gilblair each blasted solo homers in a strong wind over the right field wall.  Trinity answered immediately, as Wood came through with a two-out, two-run single that tied the game at 2-2.  The Warriors went ahead, 3-2, in the third frame on a singles by sophomore Jim Schult (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) and Gilblair and a Trinity error on attempted pick-off play at third base.

Piacentini and Wood each had two hits and two RBI for the Bantam offense, while Bass went 3-for-4 for Eastern Connecticut.  Musson worked seven innings and allowed eight hits and five runs with seven strikeouts and two walks, working on two days' rest for the Warriors.  Piacentini and Wood, joined Killeen, Graham, and Bayer on the all-tournament team, and Bayer was selected as the tourney's most outstanding player for allowing one run in 13.1 innings pitched.

"I am so proud of the way our guys handled themselves both in this tournament and really over the last two or three weeks'" added Decker.  "Last year, the third time was a charm, and this weekend we'll give it another try."

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