The Huskies, now 37-13 overall, banged out 15 hits and took advantage of five fielding errors by Illinois Wesleyan, which finished its season 37-15-1. Six of Southern Maine’s 12 runs were unearned.

Southern Maine will return to action on Sunday at 12 noon in another elimination game, facing Marietta College.

Toomey’s solo homer to left center in the seventh inning gave him 254 career hits, bettering the old record of 253, set by Bob Prince from 1989-92. The mark is his fourth school career record set this season; he also holds school marks for runs scored, stolen bases and defensive assists.

"Our hitting coach, Vinnie (Degifico), was getting on us because we didn’t put up enough runs last night," Toomey said. "He says that 15 hits is going to win you a game every time out, so we came out with a couple of runs and runs early. We got lucky the first couple of innings, when they made a couple of errors to help us out and let us score a couple of runs. We kept hitting the ball and Vinnie kept telling us to get to number 15, and sure enough, in the eighth or ninth, we got there."

Russell struck out seven Titans in improving to 7-1 on the season, allowing just four walks and seven hits. He kept the Titans off the scoreboard until the ninth inning.

"He’s going to give you an effort every time," said Southern Maine head coach Ed Flaherty. "He’s pitched in a lot of big games. He’s pitched in a World Series and a whole bunch of regional games. He’s a bulldog, a competitor, and I didn’t expect any less from him. He’s the guy you’d expect to have in that game."

Russell was battling a strained oblique muscle in his back that prevented him from using his normal pitching motion. He said he felt the injury on a few defensive plays in the contest, but was able to pitch the complete game.

"I felt pretty good. I hadn’t really thrown a ball in a week. I tried to take the whole week off and rehab it," Russell said. "I was throwing differently from the start of the game because I couldn’t throw over the top."

The Huskies opened the scoring with single runs in the first two innings. Runners reached second and third on two fielding errors in the bottom of the first inning, and the Huskies plated a run on a wild pitch to open the game. Jason Dority’s run-scoring double in the second made the score 2-0 in USM’s favor.

Another double, by Andy Lang, plated Jody Curcuru from first base in the bottom of the third. A two-out single by Dority brought in another run in the frame, and a throwing error scored another to make it 5-0. The Huskies scored another run in the fifth, when Lang scored on a fielding error.

Illinois Wesleyan starter Steve Schilsky lasted just three innings, giving up six hits and five runs (three earned). The Titans ended up using five pitchers in the game.

"The breaks didn’t go our way today, and that happens," Schilsky said. "I kind of blame myself because I should have bounced back a lot better than I did. We had some adversity face us in the first three innings. It was really tough, and it didn’t feel like the emotion that we’ve had was there after we got down."

A five-run sixth inning spelled disaster for the Titans, with all the USM runs coming with two outs. A double by Tyler Delorme in the sixth drive in a run. Jody Curcuru followed Delorme’s double with a two-run homer to left-center, and Peter L’Italien’s two-run double capped the scoring to make it 11-0. Pat Toomey socked his record-setting homer in the seventh to complete the scoring.

"We had two outs, nobody and base, and they score three runs, and then we have two outs, nobody on base and they score five," said Illinois Wesleyan coach Dennis Martel. "I always preach that the hardest out is the last one. … We just didn’t do the things that had gotten us to this point all year. That’s the frustrating part."

Brian Marshall’s three hits and three runs led the Huskies, with Curcuru, Lang, Dority and L’Italien adding two hits apiece. Curcuru scored twice and Lang scored three times.

The Titans scored their first and only runs of the tournament in the ninth, when Jeremy Hunt drove in Rich Berthold on a groundout, and Haneef Omar plated Shawn McGuire on a single. Illinois Wesleyan was shutout on Friday night with a 7-0 loss to the University of St. Thomas.

"Obviously, you want to come here and play your best baseball, and obviously, we didn’t," said Illinois Wesleyan third baseman Tony Merritt. "It was very frustrating that we didn’t score as many runs as we should have, and we had to take it on the chin."