EASTLAKE, Ohio —The Endicott College baseball team earned the chance to play for the first Division III national title in program history on Thursday with an 11-10 victory against top-ranked Denison in Game 2 of the College World Series.
The Gulls tied the best-of-three series at 1-1 — forcing a winner-take-all Game 3 for the championship on Thursday at 3:45 p.m.
That game can be streamed for free online here.
Endicott improved to 44-13 with the victory in handing Denison only its second loss in 52 games this season.
Tied at 10-10 entering the 10th inning of Game 2 early Thursday afternoon, Kyan Bagshaw worked the top of the 10th and kept Denison off the board for the Gulls.
In the bottom half, Endicott loaded the bases with nobody out before John Fusco lifted a fly ball to right that was caught deep enough to score Kyle Grabowski from third for the walk-off win.
The game was back and forth throughout with Endicott rallying for a 10-8 lead heading into the ninth inning before Denison scored twice to force the extra frame.
Fusco, Adam Regan, TJ Liponis, Brendan Walsh, Grabowski and Cade Bernardo each had two hits for Endicott, which used 17 different players in the victory.
Regan reached base and later scored on an RBI double by Kyle Grabowski for a quick, 1-0 lead in the first inning. Denison answered in the second with a game-tying double, then took its first lead in the third on an RBI walk.
Endicott tied the game at 2-2 on Fusco's RBI infield single before Denison belted a go-ahead grand slam to take the lead.
The Gulls answered again in the sixth. Fusco opened the rally with an infield single, moved to third on a hit-and-run from AJ Hamm, and scored on a deep fly ball by Regan.
After Liponis was hit by a pitch and Grabowski drew a walk, Cade Bernardo hit a game-tying two-run double into the right-center field gap to make it 6-6.
Denison grabbed another two-run lead in the seventh on two solo home runs. Endicott then came back in the eighth, when Grabowski drove in a run with a single, Walsh brought in another on a hit-by-pitch, and Fusco added an RBI groundout as the Gulls took a 10-8 lead.
Denison forced extra innings by scoring twice more to tie the game at 10-10.
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