Box Score HARWICH, Mass.—Western New England pounded out a 16-hit attack Friday night to cruise past nationally No. 11/15-ranked Wheaton (Mass.), 8-3, in Game 12 of the 2013 NCAA Division III New England Regional Baseball Championship at Whitehouse Field. Wheaton had defeated the Golden Bears twice during the regular-season.

The fourth-seeded Golden Bears (34-12) stay alive to play against top-seed and No. 8/14 Southern Maine in another elimination game at noon Saturday. The winner of that game will play Endicott in the championship round at 4 p.m. later in the day.

The No. 2-seeded Lyons end their season at 32-11 after being a year removed from competing in the national title game.

Senior Mike Rubino paced the Golden Bears offensively with three hits, while seniors Tim Clark, Taylor Perun, juniors Steve Ambrosino, Jeff Schult, and sophomore Steve Buckley all added two apiece. In fact, every starter recorded at least one hit.

Senior Mike Lospinuso (9-3) scattered 12 hits and allowed two earned runs in 7-2/3 innings of work, throwing 107 of 144 pitches for strikes. He walked two and struck out five.

Wheaton was led by Matt Lavanchy, Justin Peluso and Eric Jensen with three hits each and Paul O'Neill added two.

Western New England took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Ambrosino leads off with a single to right-center field and then stole second base. Two batters later, freshman catcher Tim Budd singles to center field to plate Ambrosino and advanced to second on the throw. With two outs, the Golden Bears kept the inning alive as Schult reached on a throwing error by Jensen, as Budd came around to score with an unearned run.

Wheaton threatened in the home half of the frame. With one out, O'Neill and Peluso had back-to-back singles and then each moved up a base when Justin Connor grounded out to first base. But Lospinuso stranded the runners in scoring position by getting Lavanchy to flyout to Schult who tracked the well-hit ball to left-center.

The Lyons threatened again in the third inning when they got two runners in scoring position with one out. Following a Dan Gusovsky popout to second base, Tyler Contillo walked to load the bases. But Lospinuso got Paul O'Neill to fly out to right field to escape the jam unscathed.

The Golden Bears tacked on to their lead with five runs in the sixth. Buckley drew a bases-loaded walk, senior Kyle McKelvey had a RBI-fielder's choice, Perun had a RBI-single through the left side, and Budd had a RBI-groundout to third base.

Wheaton broke through on the scoreboard in the sixth inning when Lavanchy delivered a RBI-single to left-center field to score O'Neill from third base. The Lyons had four hits in the frame, but only the one run to show for it thanks to a 6-4-3 double play and a flyout to center to strand two runners.

Lospinuso – who was at the 105-pitch mark going into the seventh – showed his endurance by striking out the side.

Wheaton produced RBI-singles in the eighth and ninth inning by Jensen and Peluso, respectively, but it was too little, too late.