Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

HARWICH, Mass. - Senior 2B Bill Wise (Longmeadow, Mass.) went 3-for-5 with two runs, four RBI, and two doubles, driving in the game-winning run on a two-run, two-bagger in the bottom of the sixth inning, to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 10-7 win over the Salve Regina University Seahawks in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Regional Baseball Championship Tournament this afternoon at Whitehouse Field on Cape Cod.

Trinity improves to a best-ever 32-7 and advances to the winner’s bracket, although they will play the loser of tonight’s Wheaton (Mass.)/Amherst game tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. The Seahawks drop to 24-18 and will play Suffolk (26-11), which lost to Worcester State (25-15) this afternoon, 4-1, in the other first round contest, tomorrow at noon The winner of the six-team, double elimination tournament will advances to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament next weekend in Wisconsin.

Trailing, 4-3, Trinity opened the bottom of the sixth frame with a walk by freshman Matt Stafford (Plymouth, Mass.) and a single by senior OF Rob O’Leary (Easton, Mass.). One out later, Wise doubled home the game-tying and go-ahead runs and was then doubled home with two outs by senior co-captain 3B Jeff Natale (Hamden, Conn.). Bantam junior 1B Erik Paisley (Bethesda, Md.) drove home Natale on a single to give Trinity the lead for good at 7-4.

In the top of the first, the Seahawks quickly got on board as sophomore RHP Davin Sirpenski (Voluntown, Conn.) helped his own cause with a walk and a run scored on an RBI single by freshman C Robert Peruzzotti (Mystic, Conn.). Sirpenski proceeded to walk the bases loaded in the bottom of the first and balk home the first Bantam run for a 1-1 tie after one frame.

Trinity scored runs in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Natale and in the fourth inning on a triple by O’Leary and an RBI single by sophomore SS Tim Bourdon (Sismbury, Conn.). The Seahawks put up three runs in the fifth inning on a pair of hits and a pair of errors. Senior co-captain 1B Eric Cirella (Jamestown, R.I.) had an RBI single, Sirpenski scored on a groundout, and freshman SS Matt Finlayson (Higganum, Conn.) scored on one of six Trinity errors in the game to give Salve Regina a 4-3 advantage.

After Seahawk sophomore 3B Bobby Kemple (Ithaca, N.Y.) reached on one Bantam error and scored on another in the top of the seventh inning, Trinity opened the game up with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. O’Leary lead off with a double, followed by a single by Bourdon, and Wise ripped his second, two-run double of the day to make the score, 9-5. Natale added his second sacrifice fly to give the Bantams a five-run cushion, as junior righty Gabe Rotman (Arlington, Mass.) relieved classmate Greg Talpey (Westbrook, Conn.) to start the eighth frame.

Rotman pitched a perfect eighth but gave up a double to Sirpenski and a two-run single to Peruzzotti in the ninth before closing it out for Talpey. Salve Regina sophomore lefty John Zuccaro (Hanover, Mass.) took the loss in relied of Sirpenski, while Talpey earned the win with seven innings of five-hit ball and nine strikeouts. Bourdon finished with four hits in five at-bats, while Paisley went 3-for-4, and O’Leary was 3-for-3 with three runs, a double, and a triple.