DARTMOUTH, Mass. -Â The University of Massachusets Dartmouth baseball team faced its toughest opponent of the season in No. 2 Eastern Connecticut State Saturday afternoon and fell, 16-0 and 13-6, in a Little East Conference (LEC) doubleheader.
The Warriors keep up their impressive pace and improve to 18-2 (6-0 LEC), while the Corsairs drop back to .500 with a 10-10 record (1-3 LEC).
GAME ONE
The first game of the day was all Eastern, as the Warriors handed the Corsairs a 16-0 loss. Freshmen
Devyn Vezina and
Scott Cromack, along with junior
Andrew Bryant were the only three members of the home team to register hits. Eastern's 16 runs came on 16 hits.
A pair of errors allowed the Warriors to plate the first run in the first inning. seven more came across in the second on sacrifice fly, a passed ball, a double steal, an RBI double, and a two-RBI single to make it an 8-0 lead after two innings.
A wild pitch allowed the ninth run to come across in the fourth. Six more runs scored in the sixth on an RBI single, a bases-loaded walk, and a grand slam. The 16th and final run of the game came on an RBI base hit in the seventh as the contest ended after that inning.
GAME TWO
UMass Dartmouth made a ninth-inning comeback attempt, but Eastern's lead was too much as the Warriors took game two, 13-6. Junior
Andrew Bryant blasted his team-leading fifth home run of the season in the seventh.
Three Eastern runs scored in the first on a triple, error, and a single. An RBI double made it a 4-0 lead in the third, and a base knock in the fifth extended the Warrior advantage to 5-0.
An RBI double and a two-RBI single brought the score to 8-0 after the top of the seventh. Bryant then led off the home half with a no-doubt shot to straight-away center field to give the Corsairs their first run of the day.
An error allowed another Eastern run to cross the plate in the eighth, and the Warriors eventually made it a 13-1 advantage heading to the bottom of the ninth.
UMass Dartmouth plated five runs in the home half. With one out, junior
DJ Perron walked and sophomore
Jared Neikam singled to put two runners on. SophomoreÂ
Andrew Possi then laced one to left field to score Perron. Sophomore
Matt Tempone followed with a walk to load the bases and senior
Zak Souza knocked in two with a base hit. The freshman duo of Vezina and Cromack kept it going with back-to-back singles to each drive home a run, cutting the deficit to 13-6, but a groundout put an end to the comeback attempt.
UP NEXT
UMass Dartmouth hosts Rhode Island College on Tuesday for a single game at 3:30 p.m.
