Enid, Okla. — After spending two days working out indoors and watching torrential rain fall from his hotel window, Roger Bidwell was thrilled UConn-Avery Point was finally able to make its debut in the NJCAA Division II World Series on Monday.

He was even more thrilled with the result.

The unranked Pointers, playing the No. 4 team in the country (Madison College, Wisc.), relied on a pair of old baseball standbys — strong pitching and timely hitting — to pull out a 3-2 victory and advance to the winners' bracket portion of the 10-team double-elimination tournament today at 2 p.m. against Kellogg (Mich.), a 5-1 winner over Northern Iowa Area in Monday's second game at Allen Memorial Ballpark.

"We'd rather have played as scheduled on Saturday because sitting around isn't good for anybody," Bidwell said. "But we made the best of it and then came out today and played a solid game against a really good team."

The eighth inning was pivotal for the Pointers (35-11), who led 2-1 behind Stonington lefty Doug Domnarski before a hit batsman, error and walk loaded the bases with one out, ending Domnarski's day in favor of John Russell.

Russell promptly allowed a game-tying single, but minimized the damage by striking out the next two hitters to end the frame.

"Doug pitched terrific," said Bidwell of Domnarski, who allowed four hits and one earned run while walking two and striking out nine over 7.1 innings. "We pushed him a little in the eighth, but had to get him out because of his pitch count and then Russell was able to limit the damage."

In the bottom of the eighth, Joel Acosta walked, was bunted to second and Nick Landell, and Nick Perrelli blasted a double to the wall in right-center to score Acosta with the go-ahead run, only the fourth hit of the day (Izzy Davila's two-run single in the fourth had given Avery Point a 2-0 lead) and the Pointers' only extra-base hit.

"We certainly maximized our production," Bidwell said.

Russell did the rest, retiring Madison (42-11) 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Bidwell said Andrew Hinckley will get the start for Avery Point today against Kellogg.

"Our guys think we can compete out here," Bidwell said. "What will determine our success will be the quality of pitching against us. There are a lot of good programs out here and you see a lot of good players ... that doesn't mean we can't win, but we're going to see another quality arm against Kellogg (on Tuesday).