GORHAM — Survival was going to take one more comeback. And right on cue, the University of Southern Maine baseball team got one going.

This time, however, the script had a different ending.

USM narrowed a six-run deficit to one before falling to Rowan University 13-8 in the regional final of the NCAA Division III tournament Monday at Ed Flaherty Field.

“Obviously, you never want to lose and end your baseball career, but what a year it’s been with this group of guys,” said first baseman Kyle Douin, the program’s all-time leader in home runs and RBI, who hit the 38th homer and drove in the 210th run of his career in the defeat. “From where we started in the fall to where we are now, we’ve just become family, brothers, friends for life.”

It was the first NCAA tournament berth since 2021 for the Huskies (32-12), who sought to make it out of the regional for the first time since 2014. But doing so would have required two wins against the Profs (35-5) of Glassboro, New Jersey.

Rowan, which had won 11 straight and routed USM 18-7 on Sunday, went ahead 6-0 with a four-run second inning and two-run fourth.

It was a dire spot, but just the kind of hole that the Huskies, who rallied from four runs down to win the Little East Conference final, then a five-run deficit in the regional against Babson, had become comfortable.

“We’ve been in that position all year long,” Douin said. “There was really no panic. That early on in the game, that many innings left to play, anything can happen. We showed that, we put up a fight.”

With time running out, USM’s lineup found a rhythm. Carter Higgins and Mike Anquillare had RBI singles during a four-run sixth, and Douin led off the seventh with a towering fly ball that sailed inside the right-field foul pole to make it 6-5.

“Absolutely,” Rowan coach Mike Dickson answered when asked if he was getting nervous. “It’s been like that all year for them. They spot three or four or five runs early, and then all of a sudden their lineup gets going.”

USM had Caleb Vacchiano at second and Higgins on first with two outs, and seemed poised to potentially take the lead when Kaiden Morin hit a fly down the right-field line that second baseman Joey Bogart dropped on the run. But the ball was ruled foul and Morin flew out to end the threat.

That was as close as the Huskies got. The Profs’ powerful lineup put the game away with a six-run seventh, with shortstop Brayden Davis (2 for 4, six RBI) clubbing a grand slam to left to dash USM’s fading hopes.

Evan Baschnagel homered for the Huskies in the eighth and Gabe Gifford knocked in two with a single in the ninth, but the hole was too deep.

“This team has been resilient since game one,” Davis said. “I don’t think we get nervous. I do believe that we respond so well when they put up runs.”

Big innings propelled Rowan in both victories. The Profs also had a seven-run first and five-run eighth Sunday in the win over USM.

“We pride ourselves on two-out hits and putting teams away when they think they’re getting off the field,” said Dickson, whose team earned its fourth super regional trip in five years.

USM’s lineup had been just as potent, saving its best for the highest urgency. But on Monday, the Huskies ran into just too deep of a hole and too hot a foe.

“We just fell a little short,” USM coach Scott Heath said. “We’ll just keep getting the right guys here, and I think good things will happen for us moving forward.”