CARY, N.C. – The Southern New Hampshire baseball team had the game right where it wanted it Monday. Then it suffered a rare Powers outage.

Usually reliable closer Alex Powers, who had given up one earned run all season, was touched for four in a disastrous eighth inning that turned a one-run Penmen lead into an 13-7 loss to West Chester at the Division II College World Series.

Instead of advancing in the winners' bracket of the double-elimination national championship tournament, coach Scott Loiseau's team now faces a do-or-die rematch with Minnesota State on Wednesday at the USA Baseball Training Center.

“Alex threw strikes, he competed,” Loiseau said. “He made those guys earn their knocks. Sometimes that's going to happen.”

SNHU (43-14) looked to have things under control after first baseman Riley Palmer hit the first home run of the CWS – and only his second this season – over the right field wall with two out in the seventh to put his team ahead 5-4 with six outs to go.

“At the time, that was huge,” Palmer said of his homer.

The reason it was so big is that it gave Powers a one-run lead to protect, something he'd done almost automatically this season. The hard-throwing sophomore had converted all eight of his save opportunities before Monday while going 5-1 with an 0.33 earned run average and 47 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings.

He was dominant in the Penmen's opening-round victory against Minnesota State on Saturday when he struck out four of the six batters he faced to finish out the game.

But he just didn't have it against the Rams.

The first batter he faced, eighth hitter Josh Heyne, greeted him with a ringing double to right. No. 9 hitter Reid Pulford then ripped a 1-2 pitch just inside the third base line for another double that tied the score.

Powers recovered to strike out leadoff man Mike Raimo, but the reprieve was only momentary as Jack Provine unloaded his first homer of the season onto the grassy bank in left center field to put West Chester (44-10) ahead.

“Alex definitely threw hard. We expect that of him,” catcher Kevin Spatkowski said. “He was just missing his spots a little bit. (Saturday) he was painting knees and black the whole time, but today he was about an inch over the plate. That was an inch too much.”

The Rams, who have won 10 straight, added what appeared to be some important insurance when Joe Wendel doubled off Powers before scoring on a balk by his replacement, David Gibson. But after rallying for two runs in the bottom of the inning on a single by Jon Minucci, SNHU's collapse became complete when the Rams blew things open by scoring five more times on three hits, a hit batsman, a bases-loaded walk and an error.

The stunning turn of events put a disappointing end on a game that started promisingly for the Pennmen. But after scoring three runs in the bottom of the first, starter Junior Mendez's wildness allowed West Chester right back in it, setting the stage for the late-inning fireworks.

“It was a good battle until the ninth and the game got away from us,” Loiseau said. “We struggled to throw strikes tonight. We gave 10 free passes between walks and hit batters, and to also give up 16 hits, it's hard to win a game when you do that.”