Wheaton ends Mitchell's season, Beausoleil's coaching career
May 22—NEW LONDON — There was an actual roar of the crowd on Mitchell College's turfed lawn, a crowd and atmosphere Monday befitting the circumstances of advancing in the NCAA Division III baseball tournament.
At 11 a.m., the Mariners needed one win to add to one of their greatest seasons. Wheaton, also among the best Div. III programs in New England, had spent some time in the losers' bracket, and needed two.
By a little before five, the forlorn looks on the faces of the Mitchell players told the story.
Wheaton won games of 6-5 and 5-3 to end Mitchell's season — and the coaching career of Travis Beausoleil, who will leave the school to be the new athletic director at UConn Avery Point.
"They're good," Beausoleil said of Wheaton, which set the tone in the first inning of the first game, jumping to a 3-0 lead. "They don't beat themselves. We made some mistakes that were self-inflicted, especially in the second game. Our offense didn't make as many adjustments as we would have liked. But that's baseball in the regionals. Two top 25 teams competing."
Wheaton used mid-inning home runs in both games to take leads it would never relinquish. In the first game, senior shortstop Cavan Brady snapped a 4-4 tie with a two-run shot in the sixth off reliever Kenny Heon, who was otherwise outstanding. Brady, courting future Division I offers, entered the game with 80 hits and 77 RBI in 48 games this season.
Brady later knocked Heon from the game in the seventh with a line drive to the face that chipped one of Heon's teeth and drew blood. Heon walked off under his own power.
In the second game, Kevin Matos snapped a 3-3 tie in the sixth with a solo homer that was all pitchers Ryan McCarroll and Zach Nichols, who also closed game one, needed.
Owen Robbins' two-run homer for the Mariners in the fourth inning of the second game tied the game at three. In the first game, Mitchell rallied from an early 3-0 deficit and had the winning run at the plate in the ninth.
Robbins and Bo Yaworski had three hits apiece in the first game.
Beausoleil led the Mariners to nine conference titles and eight trips to the NCAA tournament.
"It's emotional," he said. "This has been my entire adult life after grad school. To think about where this program was when I got here as a part-time coach with really no resources to now ... who would have thought?"
