ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. -- Four pitchers combined on a six-hitter with seven strikeouts and seniors Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury) and Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) each had two hits and two RBI and combined to score three runs as the No. 9-nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team won its third game in two days with a 9-5 victory over first-time opponent St. Mary's College (Md.) Sunday at the Hawk's Nest.
Eastern (3-0), which swept Hood College by a combined score of 10-2 Saturday, broke open a tight game Sunday with two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth despite only one hit to make a winner of first-year righty Griffin Pontbriant (Bozrah), who pitched 3 2/3 scoreless middle innings in relief of senior righty Zach Player (East Hampton) in his debut. Pontbriant took over while St. Mary's (2-2) was scoring twice in the fourth to cut Eastern's early lead to 4-3. Pontbriant fanned three and allowed two hits.
Leading 5-3, Eastern scored twice in the seventh without a hit on a walk, error, senior John Mesagno's (Tappan, NY) sacrifice bunt and a ground ball and tacked on two more in the eighth on Bagdasarian's leadoff triple, a balk, walk, hit-by-pitch and an error.
Leading 1-0, Eastern scored three times in the third after there were two out and none on on two walks, Broadhurst's single, an infield error and Bagdasarian's RBI double.
Sophomore leadoff hitter Jason Claiborn (Prospect) reached three times on two walks and a hit-by-pitch and scored twice. He led off the game with a walk and scored the first run of the game in the top of the first on Broadhurst's two-out triple and walked and scored on an error in the seventh.
In three games in Maryland, Eastern commited only four errors which accounted for only one unearned run. The pitching staff gave up only six earned runs in 27 innings and had a 30-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Bagdasarian batted .385 but was one of only three players over .300 as the Warriors managed only .186 as a team.
Eastern visits Purchase College Wednesday at 3 p.m. before playing six games in six days in Florida.