LOWELL, Mass. – Junior left hander Sean Newcomb dominated his first postseason appearance setting a career-high with 14 strikeouts in seven innings of work as the University of Hartford baseball team defeated Binghamton 6-1 on Thursday night at LeLacheur Park. Hartford advances into the championship's winner's bracket and will face the top-seeded Stony Brook Seawolves on Friday at 6 p.m.

The Hawks ace retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, eight of which came by way of strikeouts, including a string of five-straight before it was broken by a walk. Newcomb retired the Bearcats side all by strikeout in three different innings, including back-to-back frames in the second and the third.

Newcomb would be tagged with along the lone Binghamton run, which was unearned due to a pair of errors in the inning. In his seven innings of work he allowed just two Bearcats hits and walked four batters.

At the plate, Hartford was led by rookie third baseman David MacKinnon who finished three of four with an RBI. The top three batters in the Hawks order combined for seven of the 11 total hits with Chris DelDebbio and Aaron Wilson each finishing with two hits in four at bats with Wilson driving in one of the six Hartford runs.

Right fielder Ryan Lukach drove in a game-high two runs, both coming on his only hit a single to left center field in the third inning while led to a 4-0 lead for the second seed. Wilson and MacKinnon's RBI's also came in the third inning while Alfonso and Walker also drove in runs, Walker's in the fourth inning and Alfonso's in the sixth. Walker and Alfonso also added hits, while Touhey contributed what was the Hawks first hit of the game, a blooper into right center field that was outside the reach of a diving center fielder.

Hartford followed up five scoreless frames by pushing four runs across the plate in the bottom of the third inning thanks to a three-hit rally with two outs. The Hawks scattered four hits total over the inning with the first Touhey's one-out double. That two-bagger followed up a one-out walk issued to short stop Trey Stover who became the second out of the inning when he was caught at the plate on a fielder's choice form DelDebbio that left runners on the corners.

Wilson then began the two-out rally with a single through the left side which allowed Touhey to score the first run of the game, breaking the scoreless tie. MacKinnon and Lukach followed Wilson's hit with their own with the latter of the two driving in two runs.

Binghamton responded by taking one run back, despite Newcomb striking out the side in the fourth inning. The Bearcats saw their first hit come as a lead-off bunt single from Bill Bereszniewicz who would eventually score the lone run. He would be pushed across the plate on a two-out bases-loaded walk which came in the midst of Newcomb's three strikeouts.

The Hawks responded by getting that run back in the fourth inning, all beginning as first baseman Brady Sheetz was hit by a pitch on the first one he faced. He would score from 270 feet away thanks to a double that snuck down the left field line off the bat of Walker.

The final Hartford run came in the fifth inning, which began with a lead-off single down that careened off the third base bag and into left field. He was pushed into scoring position as Hawks clean-up batter surprised the Bearcats defense by sacrificing himself. Alfonso followed that with a single into left field which allowed MacKinnon to touch third and home providing the five-run advantage.

Hawks reliever Sam McKay would enter the game to start the eighth inning in relief of Newcomb. He would face one batter of the minimum in his two innings of work, allowing a single hit but stranding that runner at second.

The Hawks will continue their America East Championship quest in a battle of the top seeds on the winners' side of the bracket with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. Hartford and the Seawolves met on five occasions in the regular season with Stony Brook taking three of the five, including 2-of-3 last weekend in Stony Brook, N.Y.