BOX SCORE MANCHESTER, N.H. – The University of New Haven baseball team fought off elimination at the NCAA Division II East Region Championship with a 3-1 victory over Franklin Pierce on Friday afternoon at Penmen Field.
 
With the victory, the third-seeded Chargers move on to play top-seed Wilmington (Del.) in an elimination game tomorrow at 3 p.m. The Wildcats lost to Franklin Pierce, 7-0, on Thursday and extended their season today with an 8-1 win over St. Thomas Aquinas. New Haven improves to 34-15 with its first NCAA postseason win since downing Massachusetts Lowell on day one of the 2003 NCAA Northeast Region Championship.
 
Pat Simone (Branford, Conn./Branford) worked the first seven innings for the Chargers, ceding just one run while scattering seven hits to improve to 7-2. The First Team All-Northeast-10 southpaw struck out eight batters and did not issue a walk. Peter Jay (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) got the last six outs in perfect fashion to record his 14th save of the season.
 
Kyle Cullen (Dumont, N.J./Dumont) led the offense with two RBI hits – his sixth home run of the spring as well as a run-scoring single. Chris DeMorais (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) also roped an RBI single, while Brendan O’Reilly went 1-for-3 with two runs scored. O’Reilly and Cullen each stole a base as well.
 
Cullen’s roundtripper started the scoring, as the Chargers’ left fielder deposited a 2-1 pitch over the wall in left centerfield in the top of the second inning to stake New Haven to a 1-0 advantage.
 
On the mound, Simone pitched around a bloop single in the first inning with an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play, and then a Raven who reached via an error was caught stealing in the second frame to maintain the Chargers’ one-run lead.
 
New Haven built on its cushion in the fourth frame, which O’Reilly led off by legging out a bunt single. After Joe Romanelli (Baldwin, N.Y./Holy Trinity) sacrificed him to second with a bunt down the first base line, DeMorais cashed in on the RBI opportunity with a base hit to left field to increase the margin to 2-0 in favor of the Blue and Gold.
 
Back-to-back one-out walks for O’Reilly and Romanelli set the table in the top of the sixth inning and chased Ravens’ starter Steve Hathaway from the game. Ryan Leach entered out of the FPU bullpen and was greeted by an RBI single from Cullen to run the New Haven lead to 3-0.
 
The Ravens got on the board in the bottom of frame, as Justin Brock reached on an infield single and, with two down, came home on an RBI double by First Team All-Northeast-10 slugger Zach Mathieu to trim the score to 3-1.
 
Simone worked out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam with a pair of strikeouts in the seventh inning, and Jay retired all six batters he faced to close out the 3-1 victory.
 
New Haven is in the midst of its 28th NCAA regional appearance and 33rd national postseason overall. The Chargers have made 17 trips to the College World Series.