MANSFIELD, Conn. - St. Joseph's Chad Rafferty out-dueled Bowdoin's Oliver Van Zant and the Monks scraped together a pair of runs to take a 2-0 win over the Polar Bears in the opening day of the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament Wednesday evening.

Rafferty improved to 10-0 as he scattered seven hits over nine innings while striking out 13 Polar Bears. Van Zant (5-3) surrendered a pair of runs on five hits and fanned six batters. Saint Joseph's (38-5) will play Trinity in the nightcap tomorrow at 7:45 p.m. while Bowdoin (25-19) draws Southern Maine in an elimination contest at 1:15 p.m.

The two ball clubs exchanged zeroes on the scoreboard until the bottom of the fifth. With a pair of runners in scoring position and one out, Saint Joseph senior Dan Achorn reached on a fielder's choice to deliver one RBI as a second run would cross home plate on the play.

The Monks made a pair of bids to extend their lead, only to be stymied by the Bowdoin defense. In the bottom of the sixth, Bowdoin junior Tim McGarry made a spectacular catch as he fell back onto the warning track to pull down a long fly ball off the bat of Monk junior Mike Pratt. Then, in the bottom of the eighth, the bases were loaded for St. Joseph's senior Dan Brown who lifted a fly ball to center field. An accurate throw by Polar Bear junior Beau Breton mowed down the lead runner at home to end the inning unscathed.

Bowdoin junior Dan Findley was the only player to record a pair of hits on the evening and led off the ninth with a single to give the Polar Bears hope. But Rafferty responded with a pair of strikeouts and got a grounder to second to end the game.