By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The top-seeded Endicott College baseball team forced a winner-take-all game in the NCAA Division 3 Bridgewater Regional with a third straight victory Monday afternoon.

The Gulls handed third-seeded Johnson & Wales University its first loss of the double-elimination tournament, 10-4, at Alumni Park.

The victory means the two teams will meet again Monday afternoon for the championship. The winner advances to play a best-of-three Super Regional series against Ithaca College beginning Friday at a site to be determined.

Endicott, ranked No. 4 in the D3baseball.com poll and No. 8 in the Collegiate Baseball/ABCA poll, dropped the tourney opener to host Bridgewater State on Friday morning.

The Gulls (42-7) rebounded with a victory on Saturday morning over Middlebury College and another on Sunday afternoon over Bridgewater State to join Johnson & Wales (30-14) in the championship round.

After three scoreless innings, Endicott opened a 4-0 lead over the Wildcats in the top of the fourth inning, sending nine batters to the plate.

Jake Nardone, a senior from Wakefield, made it 2-0 with a two-run single that scored Nick Notarangelo, a junior from Taunton, and Danny MacDougall, a sophomore from Taunton who singled and drew a walk. A sacrifice fly by John Mulready, a junior from Peabody, scored Dylan Pacheco, a junior from Dartmouth who had singled, and Nardone scored the fourth run on a wild pitch.

Endicott made it 5-0 when Robbie Wladkowski, a sophomore from Norwood, doubled to left and scored on a single to left by Pacheco.

The Gulls added another run in the sixth as Caleb Shpur, a senior from East Canaan, Conn., reached on an infield hit, stole second and third and scored on a fielder's choice.

Johnson & Wales cut the deficit to 6-2 in the bottom of the sixth. Miles Kelly, a senior from East Setauket, N.Y., singled to right-center, went to second when E.J. Leone, a junior from Peabody, reached on an error and to third when Riley Hasson, a junior from South Portland, Maine, walked.

Kelly scored on a sacrifice fly by Xavier Botelho, a sophomore from Rehoboth, and Leone was brought home when Thorin Sanchez-Guerra, a junior from Lindenhurst, N.Y., was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Endicott added four more runs in the seventh inning, again sending nine batters to the plate.

Nardone and Liponis walked and Joey Millar, a graduate student from Lake Hopatcong, N.J., was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.

Shpur doubled down the left-field line for a pair of runs and Wladkowski brought in two more runs with a single to left for a 10-2 advantage.

Johnson & Wales scored a pair of runs in the eighth inning when Sanchez-Guerra homered to left field after pinch hitter A.J. Braid, a junior from Peabody, drew a walk.

Endicott had 14 hits off the Wildcats with Shpur leading the way with three and Wladkowski, MacDougall, Pacheco and Mulready adding two hits apiece.

Winning pitcher Brady Stuart (5-1), a freshman from Hudson, allowed two unearned runs and four hits while striking out six in 5 1-3 innings.

Losing pitcher Kyle Cutler, a graduate student from East Hampton, Conn., went 4 1-3 innings for the Wildcats, allowing five runs and eight hits.