Little Falls, NJ - Montclair State University junior southpaw RYAN COSTELLO was nowhere near Yogi Berra Stadium for last season's New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball tournament. No one thought BRIAN ELLERSON, his injured teammate and one of the country's top Division III players, would be in uniform for the playoffs this weekend.

With both playing integral part in Friday's postseason opener against Ramapo, the Red Hawks also proved the national championship they won a year ago is not the only one they're after. Costello struck out 12 and walked one in a complete-game effort, and Ellerson, a junior shortstop, picked up a pair of his in two at-bats to pace top-seeded Montclair State in a 5-1 triump ove the fourth-seeded Roadrunners.

"It's always nice to win the first one," Montclair State coach Norm Schoenig said. "If you don't win that first one, it's a long uphill struggle to get back to that championship."

Schoenig and the Red Hawks know from experience, considering they lost both of their NJAc playoff contests in a span of 28 hour last season. Their misfortune allowed one of their rivals, The College of New Jersey, to earn the league's automatic bid to the Mid-Atlantic Regional - the first leg of the NCAA Tournament - and forced Montclair State to wait-and-pray for an at-large berth.

One year later, Montclair State (28-9) is again the favorite to wear the NJAC crown. Again, it only dropped one game during regular season league play.

This time though, the Red Hawks were determined to avoid the upset.

"Coach Schoenig told us this week ago, he reminded us about what happened last year," Costello said. "He didn't want us to do the same thing, so it was real important not to drop the first one."

Ramapo (25-14) is also a team that was making its first appearance in the NJAC post season since the four-school, double-elimination format was adopted in 1990. Conversely, Montclair State has never miss the tournament.

Now the Red Hawks will meet third-seeded William Paterson, which knocked off defending champion TCNJ at 3pm on Saturday with a berth in Sunday's final on the line. Ramapo faces TCNJ at 11am in an elimination game. The winner of the first game and the loser of the second game must play again at 7pm on Saturday for the right to advance to Sunday.

Montclair State is expected to throw left COREY HAMMAN (the World Series MVP a year ago, with SCOTT ALLAN and JEFF GOGAL available to start the remainder of the tournament.

"(Ramapo's) been out of the tournament for a while, so I think we had an edge on these guys," Montclair State catcher JEFF SCHRIBER said.  "When (Costello) goes out on the mound, we have a lot of confierence. I knew that if the offense could get on top early, we'd be able to put them down and away."

The early spark for Montclair State came from Ellerson, whom Schoenig declared "out for the NJACs" just two days earlier. The Hudson Catholic product jammed his right knee during a regular-season doubleheader with Ramapo, and he received varying medical opinions regarding the severity of the injury in the two weeks since. Fitted for a brace Wednesday night, Ellerson convinced team doctors he felt dine and was in turn physically reach to play against the Roadrunners.

In his first at-bat, Ellerson roped a 1-0 offering from Ramapo starter Tim O'Shaughneesy of Fair Lawn down the line and into the left-field corner for a double. One out later, after Ellerson moved to third on a wild pitch, senior center fielder SCOTT CLARK (2-for-3, three RBI) laced a sacrifice fly to center to provide the Red Hawks with a 1-0 lead.

"Everybody kept telling me all week that I wasn't going to play," said Ellerson, who finished 2-for-4 with a run scored. "Once the trainers told me that you could get hit by a Mack truck and nt hurt yourself with that brace, in my mind, I was playing."

Ellerson expects to get another opinin from Dr. Russell Warren, the Giants team physician on Monday - a day after he hopes the Red Hawks walk away from Yogi Berra Stadium with the NJAC title.

"I didn't think he'd play at all," Schriber said of Ellerson. "When you see him out there rip a ball down the line, which helped us jump out and them down right away, we were just rolling after that."