Baseball Stays Alive with 3-2 NCAA Win Over ECSU

MANSFIELD, Conn. – Sixth-seeded Mitchell College stayed alive in the NCAA Division III New England Regional with a 3-2 victory over seventh-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University on Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.

Junior righty Axel De Jesus tossed a complete game to give Mitchell its second ever win in NCAA postseason play. Sophomore second baseman Kyle Hartenstein went 3-for-3 and drove in the go-ahead runs with a two-run single in the fourth inning, a hit that also went down as the 100th of his career.

De Jesus (6-2 overall), who was also the winning pitcher in 2014 when the Mariners upset ECSU in the tournament, went the distance for the second time in eight starts this season. He threw 85 of his 122 pitches for strikes, allowing only two runs on eight hits while striking out two and walking one.

Mitchell, which has won eight of its last 11, tied the game in the third on an RBI single by Francis Prettitore. The Mariners then went ahead for good in the fourth after setting the table against Eastern starter John Parker (4-4 overall). With two runners on, reliever Nick Rascati got an infield ground ball for the second out of the frame, but Hartenstein followed with an opposite-field two-run single into shallow left field to give Mitchell a 3-1 lead.

The two-run lead held up until the ninth when Alex Zachary led off with a solo homer to left, his 10th long ball of the season. De Jesus retired the next two batters before the Warriors put two runners on behind consecutive singles. Head coach Travis Beausoleil made a visit to the mound but opted to stay with De Jesus, who got the next batter to fly out to the warning track in left to close out the win.

Hartenstein reached base in all four of his plate appearances with three singles and a hit-by-pitch, and scored his team's first run. Zachary was 2-for-4 and drove in both of Eastern's runs. His ninth-inning homer was the only extra-base hit of the game.

The first run that De Jesus allowed that gave Eastern a 1-0 lead in the first was unearned due to a throwing error. After the first inning, De Jesus did not allow more than a hit in an inning until the ninth.

Mitchell, which improved to 2-0 against ECSU in NCAA play, will face its second elimination game on Friday at 10 a.m. against the loser of Thursday's third game between Keystone College and Salem State University.