NCAA TOURNAMENT: No. 1 Baseball Captures Mansfield Regional Championship Over Husson, 4-3

MANSFIELD, Conn. — The No. 1 nationally ranked Endicott baseball team triumphed over Husson, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium to capture its third consecutive Regional title.

WP (4-1): Brady Stuart (Hudson, Mass.) — 5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K 
LP (1-2): Ryan Penney (Saco, Maine) —  6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

The scorching hot bats of the Gulls stayed locked in early, as TJ Liponis (Scarborough, Maine) sent an RBI single past the mound to score Danny MacDougall (Taunton, Mass.) for the first run of the afternoon.

An at-bat later, Liponis was chased in from first thanks to Robbie Wladkowski's (Norwood, Mass.) wall-ball double in deep left center.

After the Eagles got a run back in the top of the third, Husson was able to scratch another across in the fourth to even the score, but a rangy play from Liponis up the middle stranded three Husson baserunners and avoided any further damage in the frame. 

However, an inning later, Husson took its first lead of the game at 3-2.

The Gulls responded with a game-tying RBI groundout from Dylan Pacheco (Dartmouth, Mass.) in the bottom of the fifth.

After Stuart threw up a zero in the top of the sixth, the Gulls reclaimed the lead with a Wladkowski sac fly down the right field line, plating Brendan O'Neil (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) with ease.

Joey Frammartino (North Reading, Mass.) ended the top of the seventh and kept the 4-3 lead intact with a ridiculous robbery against the right field wall, preventing a would-be game-tying extra-base hit for the Eagles.

Stuart continued to roll through the Eagles hitters in the eighth and ninth, and eventually worked a ground ball over to Liponis at short to wrap up the Regional victory.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• This is Endicott's third-consecutive NCAA Regionals title, and third ever Super Regionals appearance.
• Frammartino and Liponis logged multi-hit performances in each of the Gulls' three Regional games this weekend.
• Stuart made his first appearance since May 1 against MIT.
• MacDougall swiped his 45th bag of the season, which leads the nation.
• Nicholas Cannata (Marlborough, Conn.) made the start and turned in 3.2 IP.

WHAT'S NEXT

No. 1 Endicott (44-2) will compete in the NCAA Super Regionals against No. 6 Johns Hopkins from Friday, May 24, and Saturday, May 25 at a location to be determined later. 

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(Photo Credit - Kaeli Talora '25)