This past weekend’s Little East Tournament, hosted by top seed the University of Southern Maine, provided a lasting memory for 38-year Eastern Connecticut State University baseball coach Bill Holowaty.

When rain enveloped Portland after the first two days of the six-team, double-elimination affair, Holowaty called University of Maine baseball coach Steve Trimper Saturday morning to inquire about the weather in the Bangor area.

Trimper, who had played for Holoway at ECSU, said the weather was nice.

A few phone calls later, including one to Mansfield Stadium field maintenance director Ron St. Pierre, and the tourney was shifted to Maine’s Mahaney Diamond and Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium for three games on Saturday and two more at Mansfield Sunday.

Eastern Connecticut State wound up beating UMass-Dartmouth, USM and Keene State (twice) to claim the title and earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament.

USM, despite losing both of its games at Mahaney Diamond after winning its first two at its own field, received an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.

ECSU went 3-0 at Mansfield and 1-0 at Mahaney.

“It was awesome. The cooperation was unbelievable. It was a throwback to the 1950s when people cooperated. The whole situation was very unique,” said Holowaty whose son, Jared, is an assistant under Trimper.

Holowaty’s first experience at Mansfield Stadium left a lasting impression on him and his wife, Janice.

“It was splendid. Bangor doesn’t realize what it has. It’s a beautiful field. My wife thought it looked like a [scenic] picture, with the park around it and the beautiful homes,” said Holowaty, who has won 1,172 games.

Trimper said it was a credit to those involved in the local area that they were able to “pull everything together on such short notice.”

Eastern Connecticut State and Keene State (N.H.), who met in Sunday’s championship round, had to drive back to Portland Saturday night and return to Bangor Sunday for a noon first game. There were no hotel rooms available in the local area due to graduations.

USM would have won the tourney if it hadn’t played beyond Friday.

USM was 2-0, as was Keene State, but USM was the higher seed.

“We were in the catbird seat,” said USM coach Ed Flaherty. “But what do you say when everyone else wants to play? You want to decide your conference champion on the field. I can understand that.”

The Warriors will play in the NCAA Division III regional in Auburn, N.Y., while USM will head to Harwich, Mass., to play in the seven-team double-elimination New England Regional championships.

St. Joseph’s College of Standish and Bowdoin College of Brunswick will be making their NCAA baseball tournament debuts in the New England Regional.

USM (29-15) is the fifth seed and will open the tourney Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. against Salem State (Mass.), 33-6, the fourth seed.

No. 2 St. Joseph’s (33-8-1) will play No. 7 Bowdoin (28-8-1) at 1 p.m.; No. 3 Middlebury (Vt.), 24-9, meets No. 6 Western New England (Mass.), 33-10, at 4:30 and top seed Wheaton (Mass.), 34-8, will play the Salem State-USM winner at 8 p.m.