WORCESTER, MA- In a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament elimination game between the league's top two seeds, the number-two Wheaton College baseball team bounced top seed Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) from the postseason by a 5-3 count while avenging two regular season losses during Saturday morning's third round at Class of 1893 Field.

Moving into the semifinal round, the Lyons return to action later today for a rematch against fourth seed Babson College, which handed Wheaton a 13-9 loss yesterday in Norton. A Blue and White victory secures it a spot in Sunday's championship game. Wheaton, which improved to 28-8 overall, is ranked 12th nationally and tied for third in New England. WPI falls to 22-11.

After stranding 18 runners during Friday's loss to Babson, the Lyons left six men on base in the opening three frames but evened the score at one apiece. Wheaton junior starter Nick Kostaras (North Attleboro, MA/North Attleboro) set down his first four batters, including retiring two on strikes, before yielding back-to-back hits that produced the game's first run in the second. The righthander responded by fanning his next two batters to strike out the side.

With Wheaton playing the home team, senior Nick Pecora (Highland Park, NJ/Immaculata) collected his second base knock of the contest to lead off the third while advancing to second on a throwing error. After being sacrificed over to third, Pecora came home on sophomore Sean Munley's (Trenton, NJ/The Hun School of Princeton) single to second base.

After Kostaras went 1-2-3 in the fourth, the Lyons provided additional run support in the bottom half, scoring three runs on two hits, with Munley's two-out, two-run double serving as the big blow. Junior Jeff Lieneck's (Foxboro, MA/Xaverian Brothers) bases-loaded sacrifice fly accounted for Wheaton's other run in the frame. Munley again came through in the sixth, driving in his fourth run of the game with a two-out single to center, which made the score 5-2.

With WPI putting its initial runner on in the seventh, the Lyons turned to senior hurler Jared Barnes (North Attleboro, MA/Bishop Feehan), who struck out his first batter before inducing a line out to center and ground ball to short to thwart the Engineer rally. Wheaton ran into trouble in the eighth when the first three Engineers singled for WPI's third run, but senior closer Josh Simmons (Cranston, RI/Cranston West) averted further damage. With Engineers on second and third and one out, Simmons fanned his last two batters.

Simmons then set down three of four batters in the ninth to record his eighth save of the season. Kostaras raised his season mark to 4-1 after striking out eight and walking one in six-plus innings of work. He gave up two earned runs and scattered seven hits.

Munley finished 3-for-4 with the four RBI and a double, Pecora went 2-for-4 and scored twice, junior Paul Malaguti (Andover, MA/Andover) had two hits, and freshman Hal Landers (Salem, NH/Salem) drew two walks.

Nine different Engineers recorded at least one hit, as junior Matt Moreau (Manchester, NH/Central) was 3-for-4 with a run, an RBI and a double. Junior southpaw Nolan Murphy (Shrewsbury, MA/Saint John's) took the loss, yielding four earned runs with one strikeout and three walks in 3.1 frames.