WORCESTER, Mass. – Junior Emilio Acosta (Cromwell, Conn.) went 4-for-5 with a double and two runs batted in to help lead the Assumption University baseball team to a 10-9 victory over Adelphi in an elimination game during the championship round of the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament on Friday at Rocheleau Field.

In a wild back-and-forth marathon which took 3 hours and 30 minutes to complete, Adelphi (30-13-2) scored first when Kyle Olson came home from third on a wild pitch. Graduate pitcher James McNamara (Westford, Mass.), however, got out of further trouble by inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the frame.

The Greyhounds, who were batting as the visiting team for the third straight game on their home field, answered back with six unanswered runs between the second and fourth frames. Assumption tied the game when senior Nick Gaglioti (West Hartford, Conn.) grounded out to short in the top of the second with a runner on third before sophomore Jared Berardino (Rowley, Mass.) and classmate Jack Barry (Bridgewater, Mass.) hit back-to-back RBI singles in the third.

Senior Jake Hamel (Uxbridge, Mass.) gave the offense a jolt by homering to right center in the fourth to make it 4-1, and two more runs came home in the same frame to push the Greyhounds ahead by five.

But just like yesterday when the teams met to open the weekend, the Panthers stormed back and eventually tied the game at 7s in the bottom of the seventh by getting an RBI double from Alec Maag followed by an RBI triple off the bat of Johnny Catuosco.

Both offenses continued to place runners on base during the late innings with each team needing to go deep into their bullpens with elimination also factoring into the mix. Sophomore Owen Podolec (Berwick, Maine), the Greyhounds designated hitter, belted an RBI single to break the tie, and Berardino broke the game open when he homered down the line in left with a ball that barely stayed fair. Adelphi countered with a two-run bomb courtesy of Anthony Cipri, but they would come no closer.

Alexander Meesig (Nashua, N.H.) was called from the bullpen to close things up, and the freshman came through by getting five outs. He retired the two Panthers he faced following the Cipri homer to end the eighth and then had a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth, which was capped by punching out C.J. Picone.

Sophomore Matthew Gardner (South Deerfield, Mass.) picked up the win after registering three strikeouts and not issuing a walk in one inning of work for Assumption. He improved his record to 1-1 in the process, while Meesig picked up the save by retiring all five batters he faced and fanning three of them. Jacob Pedersen was charged with the loss for Adelphi, as he gave up three hits and two runs, which were both earned, while striking out two and issuing one walk in 1.2 innings of work. He fell to 2-1, as the Panthers will now wait anxiously to see if their resume is strong enough for an NCAA Tournament bid.

Assumption (24-22) will next face Southern New Hampshire with a conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line on Saturday at 12 p.m. The Greyhounds will need to beat the Penmen twice to win the championship, while Southern New Hampshire just needs one victory to claim the league crown.