WILMINGTON, N.C. – The fifth inning marked the turning point of Thursday's CAA Championship game between No. 5 William & Mary baseball (31-25) and No. 3 Northeastern (38-17) as the Tribe kickstarted its comeback, posting 16 hits and eight runs in the final five frames to avoid elimination Thursday at Brooks Field.

With 19 total hits in the contest to score nine runs, the offense exploded with ample run support to back the 7.0-inning performance of starter Nate Knowles and record-breaking closing effort of Carter Lovasz.

Earning the 19^th save of his career, Lovasz took over the all-time save record, passing Joseph Gaouette's 18 saves from 2013-16. The junior also earned his seventh save of the year, tying himself (2023) and Chris Ray (2002) for tenth-most single-season saves in program history. 

For the second time in the last three games the Tribe were playing with their backs up against a wall and fighting to avoid elimination. In its final regular season game Saturday, the Tribe thumped Campbell to earn the final spot in the CAA Championship. The threat of elimination on the horizon again today, W&M posted another dominant showing to advance to the next round of the conference tournament.

Head Coach Mike McRae led the Tribe to his first CAA postseason win as W&M earned its first CAA Championship victory since an upset of Towson in 2021. Thursday's victory also marked the Green & Gold's first CAA Championship win over Northeastern since game two of the Tribe's 2016 championship run.

Coming up big, Henry Jackson had his second four-hit game of the season and drove in a pair of runs. Joe Delossantos and freshman duo of Josiah Seguin and Anthony Greco each tallied three hits in the game, while Trey Christman and Luca Trigiani each had a pair of base knocks. 

Delossantos belted the Tribe's first hit of the game, a single to left-center field which Greco followed with an RBI double.

Knowles followed the early Tribe run with a strong start to his outing, dealing a 1-2-3 first frame.

The tides turned temporarily as the Tribe fell into a hole early, going down 4-1 through three innings. The Huskies laid on three runs in the third inning and Northeastern starter Wyatt Scotti held the Tribe to the lone first-inning run, holding the score through the fourth.

In the bottom of the fourth, Knowles picked up where he left off in the first inning, retiring the side in order to make way for the offense's comeback effort.

The remainder of the game featured crooked numbers, four of them in favor of the Tribe as a pair of runs scored in each of the final five innings. 

Knowles returned to the mound following the fourth with his usual confidence, bouncing back from his early struggle, to stretch into the seventh frame. The junior racked up nine strikeouts over a career-long 7.0 innings of work, tossing four-straight shutout framed to hold the Tribe's deciding lead. 

Laying on in the fifth, Seguin laced a single up the middle before Jackson, Delossantos and Greco all dropped singles of their own into right field, the latter pair scoring runs with two outs on the board.

Continuing the two-out magic in the sixth inning, Christman doubled to left field to begin another four-hit frame. Seguin, Jackson and Parker went back-to-back-to-back with singles, once again scoring a pair of runs.

Parker's run-scoring hit was his lone hit of the day, but scored the go-ahead run for the Tribe, taking what would prove to be its final lead of the day.

Leading off the seventh inning with his second-consecutive hit, Greco singled to second before Jerry Barnes III wore his 16^th pitch of the year.

With runners on first and second, Trigiani lobbed a two-run double into left field for the Green & Gold's third two-run inning in a row.

The Huskies scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth, cutting the Tribe's lead to just one run, before W&M had a loud answer.

With one final push, the Tribe tacked on five more hits and two runs in the top of the ninth, adding some much-needed insurance.

Goranson led off with a single, but was erased on a Northeastern double play. Two down in the top of nine, the Tribe strung together four-straight singles off the bats of Trigiani, Christman, Seguin and Jackson, to bring the Tribe to its final 9-6 lead.

Lovasz allowed just one hit in the bottom of the ninth, getting a Husky to chase for a massive final strikeout to end the game in record-breaking fashion.  
 
W&M moves on to play at 11 a.m. on Friday, set to take on No. 6 Hofstra in the second round of elimination games.

For more information, including how to purchase tickets, go to the CAA Championship Central page at caasports.com/baseball or uncwsports.com/buytickets.
 
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