BRISTOL, R.I. – The No. 16 Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team let a five-run lead midway through the game slip away, and Roger Williams University rallied for three runs without an out in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 12-11 victory Thursday afternoon at Paolino Field.
Trailing 11-6 after five innings, Roger Williams (22-6-1) rallied for its fourth straight win by scoring six runs in its final four at-bats to hand Eastern (23-9) its fourth loss in the last six outings on the heels of a 20-game winning streak. Eastern is ranked second in New England, Roger Williams fifth in New England and among those receiving votes in the most recent national poll.
The Hawks, who had won six straight after a 10-7 loss to Eastern at Paolino Field back on March 25, pushed across the tying and winning runs in the ninth on three hits, a hit batter and two walks (one intentional). No. 3 hitter London Camelo tied the game with a two-run single through the right side, and cleanup hitter Jack Morin was walked with the bases loaded to end the game.
In his fourth start, sophomore lefty Justin Marks (Beacon Falls) was driven from the mound during the Hawks' four-run first inning, but the Warriors rallied to score seven times in the fourth – four riding home on sophomore first baseman Jared Clark's (Bristol) two-out grand slam -- and three more in the fifth to take an 11-6 lead into the late innings. Senior leftfielder Josh Cofrancesco (Southington) had driven in the first two runs of the fourth with a double to make it 4-3, and junior catcher Hank Penders (Wethersfield) tied it with a single that plated Cofrancesco that set the stage for Clark's first home run of the season – a drive over the center field fence. With three hits, Penders, batting cleanup, drove in five runs, three coming on his second home run of the year in the fifth that gave Eastern its 11-6 lead.
Senior second baseman Preston Irby (Bridgeport) walked three times (and scored a run) and has now reached in ten straight games.
Seven Eastern pitchers struck out 13 batters, but walked nine and hit two batters. Graduate righty Nathan Furino (East Haven), last week's national Pitcher-of-the-Week, extended his unearned run streak to 32 innings before the hosts broke through by scoring on a leadoff triple and a one-out infield single in a two-run fourth that cut Eastern's lead to 8-6. Furino spelled Marks in the first and struck out seven in four innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and a walk.
Batting in the upper part of the order, Cofrancesco, senior DH Alejandro Soriano (Hartford), Penders, and first-year shortstop Teige Kimbler (Albany, NY) combined for ten hits and three walks, five RBI, and six runs.
Camelo, who was 1-for-6 in his team's earlier loss to Eastern, was 5-for-6 with a double, four RBI and a run scored.
Each team had 15 hits and 13 pitchers combined to strike out 18, walk 17 and hit three batters. There were five errors.
Eastern (10-1 LEC) hosts the University of Massachusetts Boston (21-12, 10-3 LEC) Saturday in a Little East Conference noon doubleheader. The Warriors, who eliminated the Beacons en route to winning last year's LEC tournament, UMass is coming off losses to Babson College (7-3) Wednesday and Endicott College (10-2) – Division III's top-ranked team – Thursday.
Eastern leads the all-time series against UMass Boston, 51-14, with the teams splitting last year's regular-season ending doubleheader at Monan Park. Eastern won the first game, 7-5 and the Beacons the nightcap, 9-5. Junior All-America lefty Dan Driscoll (Waterford) struck out seven and allowed only one earned run and five hits over the first seven innings of the first-game win.