Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

APPLETON, Wis. - Sophomore Kent Graham (Longmeadow, Mass.) powered the offense and senior co-captain Michael Regan (West Roxbury, Mass.) notched a pressure-filled save to lead Trinity to a 6-5 win over the Linfield in Game 2 of the 2008 NCAA Baseball Championship Saturday evening. With the win, the Bantams improve to 43-0, keeping the nation’s longest win-streak intact.

Bantam starter Jeremiah Bayer (Greenfield, Mass.) went eight strong innings, but Linfield sophomore Rhett Fenton (Bellingham, Wash.) made the game interesting with a two-out three-run shot in the eighth, cutting the Bantam lead to just one at 6-5. After Regan struck out the first batter he faced in the ninth, Linfield put two straight runners on before Regan was able to close the door by inducing a line out to right and a pop out to short to end the game.

It didn’t take long for the Bantams to gain a lead at the start, posting a four-run inning to open the game, highlighted by a deep 2-run blast off the bat of Graham and RBI singles from junior Ryan Piacentini (Portland, Maine) and senior Chandler Barnard (Lubbock, Texas).

With two All-America pitchers in Bayer and senior Brian Clark (Bellevue, Wash.) going head-to-head, no runs were taken for granted. The Wildcats put two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the first, but were unable to answer until the fourth, when they scored two runs on a two-out error off a hard hit grounder from senior Cory Ellis (Hillsboro, Ore.), making the score 4-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, Piacentini hit a two-out soft liner to left that Ellis nearly made a diving play on, but was unable to squeeze, allowing sophomores Matt Sullivan (North Reading, Mass.) and Jack Abbott (Longmeadow, Mass.) to come around and score, adding insurance that would prove handy to the Bantams who withstood Linfield’s late inning push.

Regan struck out senior Jordan Bousted (Dallas, Ore.) to start the bottom of the ninth, Ellis walked and pinch hitter senior Bryan Kerr (Canby, Ore.) followed that up with a single off the glove of Piacentini. Senior David Bachofner (Tigard, Ore.) then lined out to right, bringing up junior Stew Davis (Spokane, Wash.) who popped up to short to end the game.

Bayer allowed five runs, three of which earned, on seven hits in eight innings, and Graham connected for a home run, a line-drive single off the wall, and was intentionally walked twice for the Bantams. Piacentini had two hits and two RBI and Abbott added two runs for Trinity.

Fenton finished with two hits, three RBI, two runs and senior Drew Van Cleave (Pendleton, Ore.) scored two runs for the Wildcats. Clark allowed four runs on five hits and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings and senior Joshua Guterman (Fremont, Calif.) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out four for the Wildcats.

Trinity faces Johns Hopkins University at 8:00 p.m. (EST) tomm. night in the winners bracket, while Linfield takes on Adrian College at 4:30 p.m. (EST).