BRUNSWICK, Maine – Facing what will be the stiffest regular-season competition of the season, the Eastern Connecticut State University men's golf team heads into the second day of the Bowdoin College Invitational sharing fifth place in a field of 22 teams after the first 18 holes at the 6,627 yard Brunswick Golf Club layout.
 
A qualifier to the NCAA Division III national tournament last spring, Eastern's four scorers shot an aggregate 299 (+11) over the par 72 layout, sharing fifth place with Middlebury College among 22 teams.
 
Following a slow start in the first two invitationals of the season, senior All-America Ashton Lewis (Fairfield) returned to form, shooting two-under 70 over 18 holes and shares fourth place among 109 competitors. He is one shot off the pace. After the first day, Lewis led a foursome which included Ty Baker (-3) of Endicott College, Colin McCaigue  (-1) of Middlebury College and Chris Kauppila (+1) of Husson University.
 
Lewis, a team co-captain, was one of only seven golfers to break par on the first day, along with tri-leaders Jorge Montero of New York University, Baker, and Cooper Yaccino of Trinity College (all at -3), Brady Burke (-2) of Endicott and McCaigue and Leland Tsai (both at -1) of Amherst College.
 
In addition to Lewis, Eastern's three additional scorers include junior co-captain Chris Davidson (New Milford), junior Matthew Orefice (Niantic) and sophomore Jake Napolitan (Agawam, MA). Davidson and Orefice share 36^th place at four-over 76, with Napolitan tied for 50^th at five-over 77. Also competing for Eastern is sophomore Nick DiNino (Glastonbury), who shares 77^th place with a 9-over 81.
 
Trinity College (+3) leads the invitational, followed by Amherst College (+5), NYU (+8), and Hamilton College (+9). Eastern and Middlebury share fifth place at +11.
 
Endicott, which shares seventh place despite having two of the top five individual scores Saturday, is the defending tournament champion, with Amherst and Trinity sharing second a year ago and host Bowdoin placing fourth.
 
The second day of the two-day tournament gets underway Sunday at 9 a.m.