By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The top-seeded Endicott College baseball team bounced back from an opening-day loss to reach the championship round of the NCAA Division 3 Bridgewater Regional.

The Gulls eliminated host Bridgewater State University, 6-0, on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Park, avenging a loss to the Bears in the first game of the tournament Friday morning.

Endicott (41-7) needs two wins over third-seeded Johnson & Wales University (30-13) today in order to win the double-elimination regional. The first game begins at noon with the second taking place 50 minutes after the conclusion of the opener, if necessary.

The 41 wins is a school record for the Gulls, who established a new mark with 40 a year ago.

Endicott ousted second-seeded Middlebury College on Saturday morning after dropping their first game to BSU.

Winning pitcher Rian Schwede, a senior from Whitman, allowed five hits and struck out four in 6 2-3 scoreless innings. Schwede is now 6-1.

Kyan Bagshaw, a freshman from Amherst, N.H., did not give up a hit in 1 1-3 innings of relief and Will Fox of West Hartford, Conn., finished with a scoreless ninth.

Endicott, which is ranked No. 4 in the D3baseball.com poll and No. 8 in the ABCA poll, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Dylan Pacheco, a junior from Dartmouth, doubled to left-center, went to third on a fly out and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by John Mulready, a junior from Peabody.

The Gulls widened the lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning as Mulready reached on an outfield error, was sacrificed to second by T.J. Liponis, a freshman from Scarborough, Maine, went to third on a single by Joseph Millar, a graduate student from Lake Hopatcong, N.J., and came home on a sacrifice fly to left by Caleb Shpur, a senior from East Canaan, Conn.

Millar came home with the third run when Nicolas Notarangelo, a junior from Taunton, doubled to right center with two outs. Notarangelo went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and walked twice.

Endicott added a run in the sixth inning for a 4-0 advantage. Sophomore Danny MacDougall of Taunton led with a double to center, went to third on a fly out and scored on a single to left by Jake Nardone, a senior from Wakefield.

The Gulls stretched the lead to 6-0 in the eighth inning.

Dylan Pacheco led with a triple to center and scored on a single to left by Nardone, who advanced on a single by Mulready and a sacrifice by Liponis and scored on Millar's sacrifice fly.

Bridgewater State had a pair of runners on in the third, sixth and seventh innings but were unable to score.

The Bears went the final 20 innings of the tournament without scoring a run. They were blanked by Johnson & Wales, 10-0, in Sunday's opening game after not scoring in the final two innings of Friday's first game.

Bridgewater State finishes 33-12, setting a school record for victories and winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

David Kerns went 5 1/3 innings and took the loss for the Bears.