All season long, Jeff Wilson has pitched well enough to give even the most meager offensive output the chance to get the win.

The senior right-hander entered Saturday night's (May 29) contest with Eastern Connecticut State University with a nifty 1.32 earned run average and 55 strikeouts in 68 innings of work.

But as has also been the case this season, Wilson was the victim of poor run support, as his Golden Eagles dropped a 2-1 decision to the Warriors in a second round match up in the finals of the 2004 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship.

The problem was Brockport ran into an equally dominant pitcher in Eastern's Joey Serfass.

The senior right hander was 9-0 entering the finals with a tidy 1.48 ERA. Serfass's collection of off-speed pitches held the Golden Eagles to just two hits with seven strikeouts.

The second team All-America selection needed just 91 pitches to pick up the complete game and his 22nd consecutive victory, which includes seven straight in the NCAA Tournament.

The game, which finally started after a rain delay that lasted just a shade over two hours, was pitched so efficiently, that, at an hour and 55 minutes, was shorter than the delay itself.

It also had the looks of a knock-em-out, drag-em-out duel from the get-go, and one that would rely heavily on pitching, as Wilson matched Serfass on the scoreboard for much of the early innings as they combined for just three hits.

"Our defense tonight was . . . holy mackerel," Eastern Connecticut coach Bill Halowaty said. "In crunch time, the double play balls . . . I was nervous about that, and we just turned some great double plays."

While Wilson allowed eight hits, his defense helped strand 10 Eastern Connecticut base runners, keeping his team in the game.

The Warriors loaded the bases in the bottom of the third when Dwight Wildman was hit by a pitch with two outs, but Wilson got designated hitter Leon Galemba to look at strike three to get out of the inning unscathed.

The Warriors broke the deadlock in the fourth, putting runners at second and third with nobody out when first baseman Chris DeSantis hit a sacrifice fly to left, which scored Re. Re reached base somewhat oddly, swinging at strike three but advancing to first on a passed ball.

Shortstop Tim Wilson tied the game at one with a lead off home run in the top of the sixth. The shot to left field snapped Serfass's streak of 31 consecutive scoreless innings of work.

"I'm a spot pitcher, I don't strike a lot of guys out, so I had to hit my spots tonight," Serfass said.

"I made one mistake tonight, and I paid for it."

The teams traded goose eggs for two more frames until the eighth. Eastern Connecticut third baseman Jason Garofalo singled to left to lead off the inning, stole second, and got to third on a controversial interference call on Brockport second baseman John Morgan.

That was followed by Jeff Wilson's intentional walk of Chris DeSantis, putting runners at first and third with one out.

Catcher Adam Hevenor bunted the first pitch right back to Wilson, which allowed Garofalo to score, and gave the Warriors a lead they never relinquished.

"My hitting hasn't been there so I knew I had to do something," Hevenor said. "So I knew I had to put the squeeze down."

Wilson's record dropped to 4-6 in 2004. In those six losses, the Golden Eagles managed to score just 11 total runs, but his 1.30 ERA is still fourth-best in the nation.

"He's pitched great every time out, but that's just the way it goes," Brockport head coach Mark Rowland said. "It seems like every time [Wilson] pitches, we go up against somebody else's ace."

The Golden Eagles will face the loser of the Rowan-George Fox contest in a loser's bracket game to be played Sunday (May 30). Eastern Connecticut will move into the third round, where the top-ranked Warriors will face the winner of the Rowan-George Fox game on Sunday.