Little Falls, NJ – After a 64-hour rain delay, Montclair State baseball coach Norm Schoenig cleared the final hurdle to his 400^th victory.

The skies over Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls cleared up long enough to allow Montclair State to finish a 14-11 victory over Allentown in the opening round of the NCAA Division 3 Mid-Atlantic Regional. The game had been suspended Thursday in the bottom of the seventh with Montclair holding a 13-11 lead after fighting back from a 10-0 deficit just one inning earlier.

"It was bizarre," Schoenig said. "I've been involved in some games that were suspended, but never one that took this long to complete. It was almost like we played it last week."

"It's the first win of the tournament and it marks the 19^th straight year that we won the first game. I never really thought about the 400^th. Winning the first game is important, especially with the tournament with the way it is now."

In the other games yesterday, Rowan defeated Ursinus, 6-2, and top-seeded The College of New Jersey advanced to the championship game with a 12-5 victory over Ursinus. Elizabethtown defeated Allentown, 6-5, but was eliminated anyway.

Montclair State faces Rowan today at 11:00 am with the winner facing TCNJ for the title at 3:30pm.

The weather delays and a need to wrap up the regional by tonight forced organizer to adjust the format of the tournament, originally double-elimination. The first team to win three games advances to the NCAA Division 3 World Series, which opens Friday in Appleton, Wis.

Instead of squeezing in five games today, organizers shortened the schedule by eliminating team with one loss in the tournament. So TCNJ's victory ousted Elizabethtown leaving on three unbeaten teams: TCNJ, Rowan and Montclair State.

Had TCNJ lost, it would have forced the inclusion of the three team with one loss each – including Ursinus and Elizabethtown – and required five games today.

"It's kind of like everyone already has one loss," Schoenig said. "Everything has to be done correctly. No mistakes can be made."

It took Montclair State (35-6-1) 15 minutes to finish Allentown. Sophomore KEVIN RAKOWSKI-KUHLMAN was called upon to close the door on Allentown, needing only 16 pitches over the final two inning to earn his second save of the season.

Rakowski-Kuhlman knew Thursday that he would be going in to pitch the eighth inning.

"I think we were all antsy," Rakowski-Kuhlmann said. "It was a weird feeling waiting that long. We really wanted to get it over with. I think it's a relief more than anything that it's over."
CRAIG CONWAY drove in Montclair State's final run of the day in the eighth, finishing the protracted game with three hits and six RBI.

Schoenig still cannot comprehend that his team came back from a 10-run deficit.

"I don't want to be in that situation ever again," he said. "You simply don't win games down 10 runs in an NCAA regional."

The College of New Jersey (32-6-1) won the final game of the day when Mike Khori had a single, double, triple and drove in four runs and Frank Soos belted a two-run homer, his 13^th of the season.

The winner of the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament is trying to reach the Division 3 World Series for the first time since 1991, when it finished second.