NEWARK, Del. – The University of Maine’s Black Bear baseball team will be sitting by a television on Monday waiting to see which NCAA Regional they will be playing in next weekend.

The Black Bears received 7 1/3 innings of superb one-hit baseball from junior lefty Jason Rajotte and clutching hitting from Bill Champi and Gabe Duross to beat Drexel 11-1 for the North Atlantic Conference championship on Sunday at Delaware Diamond.

The Bears advanced to Sunday’s final on a 6-1, 11-inning victory over Delaware on Saturday.

Maine, now 33-25, will be playing in its ninth NCAA Regional Tournament since 1980. Maine Coach John Winkin will has led 11 Maine teams to the regionals in his 19 years.

Pairings for the eight, six-team regionals will be announced at 3 p.m. Monday on ESPN-TV with the Black Bears likely to be placed at either Florida State, Georgia Tech, University of Tennessee or Louisiana State, beginning on Thursday or Friday.

Rajotte struck out six and walked seven while pitching six innings of no-hit baseball. The only hit off him was catcher Felix Donato’s infield single with no outs in the seventh. Donato bounced a high chopper over the mound and shortstop Mike Sidoti fielded the ball, but his hurried throw was low and late.

Rajotte, now 6-5, threw 119 pitches of which 67 were strikes.

“Everything worked today,” said Rajotte, who hasn’t won since he shut out Northeastern 1-0 on April 24. “Coach (Jay) Kemble and I worked on improving my stride all week in practice. I lengthened my stride and that enabled me to keep the ball down. I changed my slider to a curve and that helped me, too.”

“He had good stuff,” said Maine catcher Shawn Tobin.

Rajotte’s biggest problems came with two outs as five of his walks and a hit batter came with two outs.

“I guess it was a lack of focus,” said Rajotte.

Maine took the lead for good in the fourth inning off Drexel starter and loser Joe Messineo.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Duross grounded an opposite-field single to left with one out and Champi followed with a booming double over center fielder Rob Geddes’ head.

“It was a 2-0 pitch and I was sitting on the fastball,” said Champi.

“It was a good pitch,” said Messineo. “It was a fastball down and away and he went down and got it.”

Champi went to third on a groundout and scored when shortstop Carmin Quartapella threw low to first on Mike Sidoti’s grounder.

Maine got three more in the sixth on a one-out throwing error by Quartapella, Duross’ triple to right center, and Champi’s long, two-run homer to left.

“He threw me a splitty and he got the ball up,” said Champi. “I was just looking to get the ball in the air.”

Maine got two more in the seventh on Justin Tomberlin’s one-out single, Chad White’s double off the first baseman’s glove, a throwing error on the relay and a wild pitch.

The Bears got four more in the ninth on White’s two-run single and Tobin’s two-run homer.

Drexel, which wound up 24-24, including a 9-7 win over Delaware on Saturday in which they overcame a 7- deficit, scored a run off reliever LeRoy Decker in the ninth.

Tomberlin, White, Duross and Champi had two hits apiece for Maine and Donato had two for Drexel.

On Saturday, Maine’s Mark Ballard and Delaware’s Alex Pugliese were locked in a masterpiece until Shawn Tobin ended an 0-12 slump by opening a five-run 11th inning with an opposite-field homer.

Both teams had numerous chances to break the 1-1 tie, particularly Delaware. The Blue Hens had runners on third in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, but couldn’t deliver them.

Tobin hit Pugliese’s first pitch of the 11th over the right field fence to finally snap the deadlock.

“I had been thinking too much about pulling the ball so I told myself to slow down my swing and go the other way with the pitch,” said Tobin. `I didn’t hit the ball that well, but the wind was blowing out to right and I had a feeling I had hit it well enough to get it out.”

“He hits everything from the middle of the plate out so we had been pitching him inside. But that was a fastball up and outside,” said Delaware catcher Bob Woodruff. `He got his pitch and he hit it.”

Gabe Duross followed with a sharp, ground-ball double down the right field line, Bill Champi moved him to third by grounding to first and, after pinch-hitter Steve Puleo walked, Mike Sidoti delivered Duross with a single off Pugliese’s leg.

“He made a bad pitch. He had gotten me out with outside fastballs but he came inside with that pitch and I hit it right back at him,” said Sidoti.

Wayne Conlan greeted reliever Bruce Hannah by singling off the right field fence to load the bases; Todd Livingston produced another run with a fielder’s choice; Justin Tomberlin’s third hit of the game, a single, delivered another and Chad White capped the rally with a run-producing infield single.

Delaware had runners on second and third with one out in the eighth and, after a botched squeeze on which the runner was able to scramble back to third, Ballard fanned Dan Hammer by freezing him with a curve and got Matt Schmidt to ground to second.

With runners on first and third and two outs in the ninth, Ballard got Cliff Brumbaugh, who had been 3-for-3, to ground to second and, in the 10th, Deron Brown’s attempt to steal home with two outs when Ballard pitched out to catcher Tobin.

`It was a miscommunication. I thought I had been given the steal sign,” said Brown.

“Shawn stepped out early so I sped up my delivery,” said Ballard, who benefitted from the fact the lefthanded-hitting Schmidt was at the plate.

“That saved the game for us,” said Maine Coach John Winkin.

Ballard hurled a seven-hitter over 11 innings, striking out seven and walking five while throwing 143 pitches (89 strikes).

“I didn’t feel I was throwing that hard and I didn’t have my curve until the late innings,” said Ballard, now 8-2. `But I was able to hit my spots and they were an aggressive hitting team. They were hitting my pitches.”

Glen Stupienski singled in a second inning run for Maine and Brumbaugh doubled home a fifth-inning run to tie it.

Righty Pugliese hurled 10 and a third innings, allowing 10 hits and five runs with five strikeouts and four walks.

“We weren’t good enough to get it done and Maine did everything it had to do to win,” said Delaware Coach Bob Hannah.

Black Bears 11, Dragons 1 (Sunday’s Championship Game)

Maine Drexel

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Livingston, 3b 5 1 1 0 Burke, lf 3 0 0 1

Tomberlin, 3b 4 1 2 0 A. White, 2b 5 0 0 0

C. White, cf 4 2 2 2 Doiron, DH 5 0 0 0

Tobin, c 5 2 1 2 Lang, 1b 3 0 0 0

Duross, 1b 5 2 2 1 Harris, 3b 2 0 1 0

Champi, lf 4 2 2 3 Quartap’la,ss 3 0 0 0

Stupienski, dh 4 0 0 0 Roberts, rf 4 0 0 0

Sidoti, ss 3 1 0 0 Geddes, cf 3 1 1 0

Conlan, rf 4 0 1 0 Donato, c 3 0 2 0

Ando, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 38 11 11 8 Totals 31 1 4 1

Maine 000 203 204 – 11

Drexel 000 000 001 – 1

E – Tomberlin; Quartapella 2, A. White 2B – C. White 3B – Duross, Champi HR – Tobin (7), Champi (9) LOB – Maine 3; Drexel 10 DP – Maine SB – Tomberlin; A. White

Pitching Summary

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Maine

Rajotte (W,6-5) 7 1/3 1 0 0 7 6

Decker 1 2/3 3 1 1 0 0

Drexel

Messineo (L,3-4) 7 8 7 4 2 6

Doyle 2 3 4 4 1 2

HBP – Burke (by Rajotte) WP – Messineo TIME -2:25; A-150

Black Bears 6, Blue Hens 1 (Saturday’s Game)

Maine Delaware

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Livingston, 2b 5 1 0 1 Brown, ss 3 0 0 0

Tomberlin, 3b 5 0 3 1 DiIenno, rf 5 0 1 0

White, cf 6 0 2 1 Hammer, 2b 5 0 0 0

Tobin, c 6 1 1 1 Schmidt, dh 4 0 0 0

Duross, 1b 5 2 2 0 Hannah, 1b 4 0 0 0

Champi, lf 5 0 1 0 Lafferty, lf 5 0 0 0

Stupienski, dh 3 0 1 1 Blackhurst, cf 3 1 2 0

Knox, pr 0 0 0 0 Woodruff, c 3 0 1 0

Puleo, ph 0 0 0 0 Brumba’gh,3b 4 0 3 1

Ando, pr 0 1 0 0

Sidoti, ss 5 1 2 1

Conlan, rf 5 0 1 0

Totals 45 6 13 6 Totals 36 1 7 1

Maine 010 000 000 05 – 6

Delaware 000 010 000 00 – 1

E – Brumbaugh 2B – Tomberlin, Duross, Champi; Woodruff, Brumbaugh HR – Tobin (6) LOB – Maine 10; Delaware 8 DP – Delaware SB – Blackhurst, DiIenno, Brown S – Brown

Pitching Summary

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Maine

Ballard (W,8-2) 11 7 1 1 5 7

Delaware

Pugliese (L,6-4) 10 1/3 10 5 4 4 5

Hannah 2/3 3 1 1 0 0

WP – Pugliese TIME -2:43; A-300