Mansfield — They lingered on the field well after earning the Super Regional clinching victory on Sunday.

The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball players posed with the trophy, chatted with family and friends and soaked in what they had accomplished, securing a berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament for the first time in 15 years.

Senior Matt Malcom, a big smile glued to his face, may have set the world's record for giving out the most hugs during a championship celebration.

"It's an unreal feeling," said Malcom, an East Lyme High School graduate. "We've become accustomed to winning, being the better team on the field. But, this one means a lot more. It's good to finally get one on our home field."

Finishing off Rowan University, 7-6, in a drama-filled 13 innings to sweep the best-of-three series meant more to the Warriors than securing a trip to the nationals.

It also meant a team that clearly enjoys each other's company would continue to be together at least for another week or so. They open play in the eight-team, double elimination event Friday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, against a yet to be determined opponent.

"This team is just special," said starting pitcher Tommy Benincaso."It's going to be hard to find another group of guys who love each other more. And we want to play for each other and we want to keep going. Credit to our whole team because they had my back today."

It truly took a team effort for the top-ranked Warriors (44-3) to win what Benincaso appropriately described as a stressful but fun game. They set a program record for victories in a season.

"I told (head coach) Brian (Hamm) at one point — I don't know if it was the 11th or 12th — that I was going to pass out in the dugout," said associate head coach Chris Wojick, a Montville graduate and former Eastern pitcher. "It was just stressful inning after stressful inning after stressful inning."

"... But we've been in those situations before. Maybe not that many extra innings, but we've played from behind. We're comfortable playing from behind. We're comfortable with a tie ball game, especially with how good our defense is and our pitching has been pretty good this year. And good luck trying to hold our offense down for that many innings."

Momentum shifted between the two teams, as the lead changed five times in the first seven innings. Both teams had prime scoring opportunities in extra innings before Eastern pulled it out in the top of the 13th.

The winning rally started with one-out singles by senior Noah Plantamuro and sophomore Jason Claiborn (3 for 5), the No. 8 and No. 9 batters in the order. Then junior Zach Donahue walked to load the bases. Reliever Christian Bascunan hit senior Ryan Bagdasarian, the super regional most outstanding player, with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the inning, Eric Didomenico singled to put the lead off batter on board for Rowan (33-10).

Hamm summoned junior Billy Oldham, who started and pitched seven innings to earn the win in a 6-1 decision on Friday in game one of the series, from the bullpen. Oldham made a sparkling defensive play, catching Trip McCaffrey's bunt in the air and firing to first base for the double play.

Oldham, the super regional's most outstanding pitcher, collected the save in his first relief appearance this season by getting Tyler Cannon to ground out to end the game, setting off Eastern's joyous celebration. It was the longest NCAA postseason game in program history.

"The way our season ended last year, we weren't satisfied with that," senior All-American Luke Broadhurst said. "We made it to the regional and we went 0-2, so that's something that drove this team since that last out of that last game. That really fueled us this offseason. We had something to prove this year.

"We're still not done."

There were a number of heroes for the Warriors.

Relievers Bryan Albee, a Killingly graduate, Jack Wallace, Nolan Lincoln (6-0) and Oldham combined to pitch 6.2 scoreless innings. Broadhurst belted a solo home run and a 3-run shot and finished with three hits and four RBI. His second blast was a big blow, coming in the seventh inning and turning a 5-3 deficit into a 6-5 lead.

Malcom, a senior who caught all 13 innings, had two hits and senior Jack Rich added a solo home run. Hunter Wroniuk led Rowan with four hits, including two home runs, and five RBI.

Sunday's game was originally scheduled for Saturday but rain forced a change.

That was just fine with the Warriors.

"The guys love being together," Hamm said. "It was one more day together. Fortunately, Jim Penders and UConn allowed both teams to practice up at UConn. UConn is awesome when it comes to that stuff. So we went up there and practiced and had a team dinner here."

They'll pack their togetherness, team chemistry and talent for their trip to Iowa later this week.

"We know now that we're the best team in the country," Malcom said. "We go out there every day and just try to prove it to everybody. That's the mentality that we're carrying with us, and that's been working."

g.keefe@theday.com