President Reagan was projected the winner yesterday in the Massachusetts presidential contest, where voters gave Democratic challenger Walter F. Mondale one of his strongest showings nationwide.

With 92 percent of the precincts reporting as of 3:15 a.m., Reagan led Mondale by four percentage points.

CBS and ABC News earlier projected that Reagan would narrowly edge out his opponent, while NBC described the race as too close to call.

Massachusetts voters went to the polls in record numbers, bucking the band-wagon that gave Reagan landslide margins of victory across the country.

According to television exit polls, Reagan made significant inroads yesterday with Independents and registered Democrats, who outnumber registered Republicans four to one.

Reagan carried the staunchly Democratic Bay State by a fraction of a point in 1980, when then-President Jimmy Carter and Independent candidate John Anderson split the liberal vote.

"This is a Reagan victory; that was a Carter defeat," said Professor of Government Richard E. Neustadt.

While Reagan trounced his opponent nationwide, Mondale salvaged a close finish in Massachusetts. Mondale drew strong support yesterday from female voters, who made up almost two-thirds of the unprecedented 85 percent turnout.

Political observers said that Mondale might have benefited from a "reverse coattail effect," drawing strength from popular Democratic Senate candidate John F. Kerry. Kerry swept to a comfortable victory over Republican Raymond Shamie.

MIT political scientist Walter Dean Burnham said that a rally on the Boston Common last Friday with Kerry and other prominent Massachusetts Democrats might have crystallized Mondale's base of support.

Most recent opinion polls showed Mondale trailing Reagan in Massachusetts, and his strong finish came as something of a surprise.

Massachusetts, considered a stubborn bastion of liberalism, was the only state to resist President Richard M. Nixon's reelection tidal wave in 1972.

State GOP leaders yesterday hailed the apparent Reagan victory as a signal of Republican resurgence.

"The Republican Party is now a valid party in this state," said Sen. David H. Locke '51 (R-Wellesley), chairman of the Massachusetts Reagan-Bush campaign.

"The old New Deal coalition has finally collapsed in Massachusetts," said Republican State Committee Chairman Andrew S. Natsios (R-Holliston). "Reagan has recreated the Republican Party in Massachusetts through young people," he added.