Mitchell's Eddie Santiago retired the final 10 batters he faced to finish the game strong. He allowed three runs on nine hits over 9.0 innings and issued only one walk. .  Mitchell athletics photo

Mitchell and Lesley opened the 2018 NECC Championship with wins on Friday afternoon at Alumni Field. In the day's first game, the top-seeded Mariners bested fourth-seeded Becker College by a 7-3 final. Mitchell starter Eddie Santiago tossed a complete game and struck out 11 to improve to 6-2 on the season. Garet Griffin paced the offense by going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Lesley held off a ninth-inning threat from third-seeded Elms College to secure a 6-5 victory. The Lynx trailed until a three-run fifth inning—highlighted by home runs by Nicholas Ferragine and Justin Clark—gave them the lead for good. Reliever Tom Muratore got into trouble in the ninth but cleaned up his own mess to record his first save of the season. The NECC Baseball Championship continues on Saturday, with three games. Becker and Elms will face off in an elimination game while Mitchell and Lesley will meet in the winner's bracket. The third game of the day, a second elimination game willl end the Saturday slate.

• The D3baseball.com scoreboard

Matthew Williams allowed only two runs in eight-plus innings and Concordia-Texas cruised past East Texas Baptist 7-2 in the first day of the American Southwest Conference "Blue Bracket" Tournament. They will meet Texas-Tyler who defeated Univirsity of the Ozarks 10-4.  Texas-Dallas and Hardin Simmons advanced in the "Red Bracket". The Comets won 13-2 over Le Tourneau and the Cowboys were 9-2 winners of the bracket hosts, Sul Ross State.

• UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point split WIAC set
• UMass-Boston walked off to LIttle East regular season title

Colin BeVard hit a walk-off homer with two outs in bottom of the 11^th inning to lift nationally seventh-ranked and tournament top-seeded Cortland past second-seeded Oswego State, 2-1, in the winner's bracket of the SUNYAC Tournament. Earlier New Paltz defeated Brockport by an identical scoere, 2-1 also in the eleventh inning. New Paltz and Oswego had a final elimination game in the evening that was suspended with the Lakers leading 4-0 in the sixth inning.

Farmingdale State, St. Joseph's (L.I.) and Merchant-Marine all won on Friday Merchant-Marine escaped elimination with a 9-8 win over Mount St. Mary. Farmingdale State and St. Joseph's will meet in the final winners bracket game aith the loser meetign Merchant-Marine to set the title opponents.

With their backs to the wall and facing the prospect of a quick end to their trip to the double-elimination NJAC Championship tournament, Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptors pulled an ace from their sleeves. That ace, senior right-hander Carter Fichter, trumped anything that top-seeded The College of New Jersey could offer. Fichter hurled a six-hit gem, nearly collecting his second shutout of the season over the nationally-ranked Lions, to stave off elimination and keep the third-seeded Scarlet Raptors alive in the NJAC playoffs with a 3-1 victory. Rutgers-Camden (26-14), which lost its playoff opener Tuesday, will play a losers' bracket game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Kean, a 5-4 winner over William Paterson, the host school for the weekend's action. Rowan scored the first three runs of their game with Ramapo and made it stand up in a 3-2 win.

Junior Brian McHale homered and drove in three runs, while classmate Connor Gill struck out six in a complete-game effort as top-seeded Babson defeated fourth-seeded MIT, 7-3, in its New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament opener on Friday afternoon at Govoni Field. With its ninth consecutive victory, Babson improves to 30-10 overall while setting a new single-season record for wins. The Beavers will take on Wheaton (Mass.), a 3-1 winner over Clark. MIT and Clark will meet in the early game with the winner advancing to play the loser of the winner braket final.

If you're a fan of high scoring games, you would've loved the SCIAC Postseason Tournament opening day. La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens combined for a total 41 hits and the teams scored 17 runs in the sixth inning alone in Friday's game and the Leopards came away with a 24-14 win. The top-seeded Leopards will now play No. 2 seed Redlands tomorrow with the Leopards will serve as the visiting team. The Bulldogs defeated Chapman 13-6 in their tournament opener. The Sagehens and Panthers will open day two of the tournament tomorrow. All remaining tournament games will be played at Ben Hines Field.

Three best of three series in the opening weekend of the ODAC tournament never got to a third game as Virginia Wesleyan and two other teams swept their games on Friday. Virginia Wesleyan athletics photo

Top-seeded Randolph-Macon pounded out 36 hits, including six home runs, and tallied 34 runs in sweeping eighth-seeded Bridgewater Friday afternoon in the first round of the 2018 ODAC Tournament on Hugh Stephens Field at Estes Park. The Yellow Jackets (31-5-1) posted wins of 17-7 and 17-3 over the Eagles (19-20-1). R-MC advances to the second round of the ODAC Tournament next weekend in Lynchburg. Roanoke and Virginia Wesleyan also swept their series with Guilford and Lynchburg. The remaining three game series featuring Shenandoah and Hampden-Sydney will start on Saturday.

• Like us on facebook
• Follow D3baseball on twitter
• Talk baseball on the D3boards

Trinity (Texas) and Centenary expected to meet in the second round of the SCAC tournament. They will play for their playoff lives as both top seeds suffered a loss on the opening day. Dylan Drgac pitched a complete game for Texas Lutheran for his 11th win in a 6-3 win over Trinity. Centenary and Southwestern finished their game tied at 2-2 with the Pirates getting their plunder with a 3-2 win in ten innings.

• Stevens wins sixth straight, St. John Fisher drops fourth
• Concordia-Chicago powers to NACC title

Top-seeded Westfield State rolled to a big early lead, then held on late to defeat Salem State, 13-7, in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament at Bud and Jim Hagan Field. Framingham State had it easier as they swung the bats in a 10-1 win over Mass-Maritime. The third seeded Rams are just two wins from a pass into the NCAA playoffs.

Senior Mike Boulanger picked up a critical win for No. 2 Arcadia against No. 4 Widener, 5-2. The Knights will play for the MAC Commonwealth Title on Saturday. They will meet Hood who won two elimination games to advance to the title game. Hood scored in double gidits in both game, eliminating Alvernia, 10-3, and Widener, 13-12 in ten innings. In the late game Hood rallied for a run in the ninth to tie the score and in the tenth when Nathan Kessler singled to center field, scoring Drake Friend for the walkoff win.

Senior Adam Donovan pitched 6.2 shutout innings and DeSales team broke it open late advancing into the winner's bracket with a 9-1 win over King's College in the first game of the MAC Freedom Tournament at Owls Field. Misericordia defeated Wilkes 16-3 to meet DeSales in the winners bracket final.

The Baruch Bearcats season came to an end on Friday following an 8-3 loss to associate member Finlandia in a double-elimination game of the 2018 CUNYAC Championship. The game was scoreless through the first three innings, but the Lions from the state of Michigan broke the deadlock with two runs in the fourth inning and four in the fifth to jump out to a 6-0 lead. The Bearcats were limited to two hits, but a bases-clearing, three-run double by Edwin St. Hilaire in the bottom of the eighth got the Bearcats back into the contest. Unfortunately, Brandon Teichman pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts to hand the Bearcats a tough 8-3 loss at the College of Staten Island complex.

The two top seeds in the CAC preliminary round will have a chance to advance to the championship series. Salisbury will need to be defeated twice after shuting out Frostburg State, to eliminate the Bobcats, and York by identical 7-0 scores. York was a 17-5 winner to open the Salisbury pod. Christopher Newport will need to win twice on Saturday. Penn State-Harrisburg won one-run games from Southern Virginia, 12-11, and Christopher Newport, 10-9, to draw within one win of winning the CNU Pod. Christopher Newport was a 17-5 winner over Southern Virginia to end their season.

Penn State Altoona and Pitt-Bradford split a best of three series for one spot in next weeks AMCC Chapionship round. Altoon won 24-12 in the nightcap after dropping the opener 6-10. The split sets up a winner-take-all game on Saturday.