WALTHAM, Mass. – Following a thrilling walk-off win over Southern New Hampshire University on Tuesday, Bentley University will take on the University of New Haven on UNH's Vieira Field Thursday at noon as the double-elimination portion of the Northeast-10 Conference Baseball Championships gets underway.

Due to a less than ideal weather forecast, the other opening game will be played at the same time at Southern Connecticut State, with Le Moyne College facing Merrimack College.

Thursday's two winners are due to square off at 12:30 pm Friday after the two losers play in a 10 am elimination game.

Bentley, which has advanced in the conference tournament for the first time since 2002, will be looking to avenge a pair of regular season losses to New Haven from back in March, 4-3 and 4-1. Those two losses dropped the Falcons to 7-10, but the team has certainly turned it around with a 20-10 record since then, including 20-7 since March 30.

New Haven, the number one seed out of the Southwest Division, has the most wins amongst the four teams who'll be vying for the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II East Regional. The Chargers are 30-13 overall after winning 10 of their last 11, including 5-0 over Adelphi Tuesday in the tournament's opening round.

Statistically, New Haven has the edge of the Falcons offensively, with a .269 batting average and 5.3 runs a game. Bentley has hit .238 overall and .252 in East Region games this spring, and coach Bob DeFelice's club scores 4.8 a game.

Bentley has the better ERA, 2.80 as compared to 3.16, and its fielding percentage of .969 is eight points higher.

It's expected that DeFelice, the Northeast-10 Coach of the Year, will go with senior right-hander JP Ashline (Clinton, Mass./Acton-Boxboro Reg. HS) as his starter. The third-team All-Conference honoree had a five-game winning streak halted by UMass-Lowell last time out, but will take a 6-2 record and a 2.44 ERA into the NE-10 playoffs.

Another senior righty, second-team All-NE-10 selection Jeff Croteau (Auburn/Auburn HS), will likely get the ball for the team's second game. He's 7-4 with a 2.02 ERA in a team-high 89 innings.

Senior catcher Kevin Korwek (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand HS), whose hometown is about 25 minutes from the New Haven campus, has been the team's top hitter this spring with a .289 average overall and .328 in conference play. He's driven in 29 runs and recently had a 26-game hitting streak.

Following him are juniors Sean Keady (Norwood/Norwood HS) and Will Brennan (Locust Valley, N.Y./Locust Valley HS) at .282 and .276, respectively. They are 1-2 on the club in runs scored (40 and 32), and Keady's 36 stolen bases is a school record.

Bentley's hottest bat over the last ten games belongs to junior third baseman Nate Witkowski (Melrose/Malden Catholic HS), who had the walk-off single in Tuesday's playoff opener. He's hit .324 over that stretch and has boosted his RBI count to 29, tying with Korwek for second on the team behind junior right fielder Tom Nagy (Fairfield, Conn./Ludlowe HS), who has 31.

New Haven's number one starter, Pat Simone (6-1, 1.48), won't be available after six scoreless innings Tuesday.  It'll probably be a righty on the mound with Frank Vilacha (6-2, 3.02), Henry Hirsch (4-2, 3.17), John Melville (3-1, 3.53) and Taylor Candage (5-1, 4.24) options. Melville worked out of the bullpen Tuesday with 21 pitches over two innings.

Junior outfielder Chris DeMorais, the team's only non-pitcher to earn All-NE-10 honors, is New Haven's top hitter with a .368 average and 30 RBI.

Teams don't want to trail New Haven late as Peter Jay has been one of the conference's premier closers. He has two wins and 12 saves in 20 appearances, and in 27.1 innings, he's allowed only 12 hits while striking out 33.

BENTLEY BRIEFS: DeFelice is the dean of Division II coaches with this his 45th season at the helm … The Falcons are 21-3 this season when scoring at least four runs and 27-9 when scoring at least two runs … the team is 22-5 when giving up three runs or less … Bentley is 20-1 when leading after six, 21-1 when ahead after seven and 22-1 when leading after eight … DeFelice has put the same nine players on the field in 28 straight games … Korwek's 190 career hits is tied for ninth in program history … Senior RHP John Yohe (Merrick, N.Y./St. Dominic HS), who pitched in Tuesday's game, is number one in school history in career games started and innings … Freshman first baseman Evan Mondor (Rehoboth/ Dighton-Rehoboth Reg. HS) leads the Northeast-10 in putouts (463), including a college baseball record (all division) 36 in a 16-inning game with Rollins back in February … Brennan leads the conference in assists (159) and senior second baseman Logan Gillis (Merrimack, N.H./Lawrence Academy) is tied for third with 155 … In the most recent NCAA Division II statistics, Bentley was third in fewest walks per nine innings, 10th in ERA, 11th in WHIP and 30th in fielding percentage … Bentley has gone to extra innings five times and has played at least 13 on four occasions.