MANSFIELD, Conn. – The eight-seeded Babson College baseball team scored seven runs in the top of the second inning – freshman Sean Cleary (Milton, Mass.) hitting a grand slam for his first collegiate home run -- and the Beavers went on to stun top-seeded and No. 3 nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University, 10-6, Wednesday afternoon in an opening-round game of the 2009 NCAA Division III New England Regional Tournament at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.

Making its first NCAA appearance since 2004, Babson (23-18) moved into a winners’ bracket game Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against fourth-seeded WPI. The Engineers dropped fifth-seeded Suffolk University in Wednesday morning’s first game.

The loss in the New England Regional was Eastern’s (35-7) first in 16 games over three previous tournaments and snaps the Warriors’ overall 14-game winning streak this year. Eastern looks to remain alive Thursday morning against Suffolk in an elimination game at 10 a.m.

Babson had five of their game total of 13 hits in the seven-run second inning, when they scored seven times to push its early lead to 9-0. Team batting leader Billy Besinger (Milton, Mass.) drove in the first run of the inning with a single to make it 3-0, and freshman Travis Jonasson (Needham, Mass.) knocked in two more with an opposite-field single to left that knocked out Eastern starting pitcher Matt Fontaine (Cranston,, R.I.). Reliever Mike Tingley (Vernon, Conn.) gave up a single on the first pitch to load the bases, and Cleary launched the first home run of this career over the left-field fence to cap the inning.

Babson sophomore righty Andrew Aizenstadt (Norwell, Mass.) gave up 14 hits but recorded his sixth complete game of the year in nine starts. Aizenstadt (8-1) threw 158 pitches, striking out ten and walking two. Six of his strikeouts came against the No. 2 and No. 3 hitters in the Eastern lineup.

Cleary drove in five runs in the game with two hits, and Babson cleanup hitter Bryan Evans (Belaire, Texas) was 4-for-5. Besinger had two hits and scored two runs.

Eastern leadoff hitter John Parke (Middlefield, Conn.) and Melvin Castillo (Danbury, Conn.) each had three hits for the Warriors, which carried a .357 batting average into play.

Babson, which won its conference tournament after splitting 12 regular-season conference games, has lost three of its last four entering the tournament.