Courtesy Bowdoin Sports Information

HARWICH, Mass. - The St. Joseph's College baseball team rallied from a six-run deficit to take a 9-7 win over Bowdoin College in Game Two of the NCAA Baseball Regional at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, Massachusetts on Wednesday afternoon. The Polar Bears (28-9-1) fall into the Loser's Bracket of the Regional, and will play the loser of Middlebury-Western New England on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. The Monks (34-8-1) advance to the Winner's Bracket and will face the winner of that game at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Bowdoin jumped out early, and batted around in the second-inning as a bloop single by Ricky Leclerc and bleeder through the right side of the infield by Joe Berte set the Polar Bears up with runners on second and third and no one out. Koperniak walked to load the bases and Nick Lawler- Bowdoin's all-time career hit-by-pitch leader- was plunked by St. Joseph's pitcher Charlie Furbush to give Bowdoin a 1-0 lead. Catcher Mike Buckley popped out to short for the first out of the inning before Chris Bucci lifted a fly-ball to left, scoring Berte from third for a 2-0 edge. Chris McCann dropped a perfectly-placed single to right-center, bringing home Koperniak to make it 3-0. With the count 1-2 on Jon Lawrie, Lawler scampered home from third on a pick-off throw to first to give Bowdoin a four-run lead. After Jon Lawrie laced a single to right-center, Lemieux dropped a bunt hit to score McCann with the fifth run of the frame for the Polar Bears.

The Polar Bears added a run in the third inning to pushed the lead to 6-0, as Mike Buckley brought home Joe Berte from third on a suicide squeeze bunt with one away. The Monks rallied in the bottom of the third, as a throwing error by Berte allowed Jake Rodden to score. Luke Enman doubled off the left-center wall to bring home Mark Clapp to cut the lead to 6-2 after three innings of play. In the bottom of the fourth, St. Joseph's mounted another charge, cutting the lead to two runs on an error by McCann to make it 6-4. Later in the frame, Clapp chased Leclerc off the mound with a run-scoring double, bringing home Wade Oliver to cut the score to 6-5 after four innings of play.

After Oliver reached on an error to start the bottom of the seventh, Clapp sacrificed the Monks' lead-off hitter to second. Bowdoin closer Mark Bulger took over, and on his first pitch of the game, was taken deep by Luke Enman to give St. Joseph's their first lead of the game at 7-6. It marked the first extra-base hit allowed by Bulger in over a month. Ninth-hitter Brian Schools connected on a two-run homer off Bulger in the bottom of the eighth inning to push the lead to 9-6.

Bowdoin attempted to rally in the ninth, as a two-out single by Lemieux scored Chris McCann to cut it to 9-7 before Leclerc grounded out to end the game. Furbush settled down after the rough start, allowing just two hits after the third inning, striking out 10 overall in a complete game. Bulger was tagged with the loss for Bowdoin in relief. Tyler Turgeon tossed 2.2 innings of strong middle relief for the Polar Bears, who got two hits apiece from Chris McCann, Jared Lemieux and Joe Berte.