PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Powered by a five-run fifth inning, the Eastern Connecticut State baseball team posted a 10-3 victory over UMass Dartmouth in Little East Tournament action on Wednesday afternoon. The second-seeded Warriors move to 31-10 overall, while the fifth-seeded Corsairs move to 19-18 on the season.
Eastern Connecticut is back in action on Thursday at 2pm, taking on the winner of Wednesday's game between third-seeded Southern Maine and fourth-seeded UMass Boston. The Corsairs return to action on Thursday morning, taking on sixth-seeded Castleton in an elimination game at 9am.
It was a wild start to the opening inning of play as the Corsairs took the early lead. With one out on the board, senior shortstop
DJ Perron singled up the middle.
Left fielder
Andrew Bryant followed, belting a double to right center as Perron came home for the 1-0 lead. Next up, third baseman
Andrew Possi singled to short, advancing Bryant to third. The Corsairs saw Possi advance to second soon after on a wild pitch as Bryant came in to score on the play for a 2-0 margin.
In the bottom of the inning, Eastern came to the plate, the defending National Champions looking to get onto the scoreboard. After an opening fly out, the Warriors benefited from three straight walks as Corsairs sophomore hurler
Adam Maher pushed the count full on each batter, but the final call didn't go his way.
With the bases loaded and two outs on the board, junior Alejandro Soriano dropped a single to right center field, bringing in two runs to tie things at 2-all.
In the second stanza, the second-seeded Warriors saw senior Noah Plantamuro reach on a single to left, bringing up junior Zach Donahue to the plate as he sent a deep home run over the left center wall for a 4-2 advantage for EastConn.
After a pair of quiet innings, the Warriors pulled away in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs to jump out to a 9-2 advantage. With a runner on second, junior Ryan Parent stepped up to the plate, sending the ball into left center to score the run. After an out on the board, the Corsairs switched pitchers as junior
Kevin Moszkowicz came on to relieve starter
Adam Maher.
Soriano stepped up to the plate, doubling to left center to score the runner for a 6-2 lead. Sophomore Ray Leonzi followed with a single to left, advancing to second on a throw as another run crossed the plate. The Warriors then saw Plantamuro lay down a sacrifice bunt for another score, while junior Jason Clairborn doubled down the left field line, bringing in another runner for the 9-2 margin.
In the top of the seventh the Corsairs finally got things going as first baseman TJ Keefe singled to left. Rookie center fielder Bret Baker walked and after a line out, Perron stepped up to the plate, sending the ball to left to bring in Keefe. Bryant was next up, grounding out, but advancing the runners to second and third with two outs. Despite a hard-hit ball from third baseman
Andrew Possi, the Warriors shortstop laid out for a great play to get the out and end the inning.
The Warriors were able to get another run across the plate in the bottom of the seventh, opening the lead to 10-3 on a sacrifice fly by Donahue.
Sophomore hurler Nicholas Furino shut down the Corsairs in the top of the ninth to end the game for the Warriors victory.
Leonzi went 3-for-4 from the plate with two runs scored and an RBI., while Soriano was 2-for-5 with a run scored and three RBI. Plantanuro was 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI. On the mound, sophomore Matthew Wootton earned the victory pitching 6.0 innings. He allowed just two runs on seven hits, striking out eight batters with two walks. Junior Finn Doherty came on for 1.0 innings of relief, while Furino posted 2.0 innings to close it out. He surrendered no runs and just two hits with a strikeout.
For the Corsairs, Perron was 3-for-5 on the day with a run scored and an RBI. Bryant was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, while Keefe was 2-for-4 with a run scored on the day. Maher went 4.1 innings, allowing six runs on six hits with a strikeout. Rookie
Sam Watts went 0.2 innings, allowing one hit with a strikeout, while senior
Adam Horowitz closed out the game with 3.0 innings pitched with one run allowed on four hits.
