MANSFIELD, Conn. – Senior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme) drove in six runs with two hits and a sacrifice fly and senior All-America third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) reached five times and scored five runs as the No. 2 nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team won its eighth straight game, 18-2, over Anna Maria College Wednesday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Leading 5-2, Eastern (20-2) scored 12 runs on ten hits in the middle innings and went on to present head coach Brian Hamm with his 300th career head coaching win. Hamm has won 79 games in four seasons at Eastern after winning 221 games in nine seasons at Amherst College. His 13-year overall head coaching record is 300-142 (67.9 winning percentage).
While graduate right-handed pitcher Tommy Benincaso (Norwalk) was limiting Anna Maria (17-11) to six hits without a walk and striking out eight over the first seven innings, Eastern was compiling its sixth straight game of at least 15 hits. Ten different batters had at least one hit, ten scored at least one run and seven knocked in at least one run.
Malcom, who drove in five runs in Tuesday's 23-2 Little East Conference win over Western Connecticut, homered for the second straight day – giving him a career-high seven this year -- and plated six more runs with a three-run home run in the first, sacrifice fly in the third and two-run single in the fifth. Broadhurst finished one run shy of the program's game record. He was hit-by-pitch and scored in the first, doubled and scored in the third, walked and scored in the fourth, had an RBI single and scored in the fifth, and blasted his team-leading eighth home run – a two-run shot – in the sixth.
Graduate leftfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY) reached safely for the 40th straight game dating back to last year when he was hit-by-pitch in the third inning. He also had an infield hit and scored in the fifth and walked and his pinch runner scored in the sixth.
Senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury) hit safely in his 13th straight game – the longest such streak this year -- scored three times and drove in one run. He singled and scored in the first, was hit-by-pitch and scored in the third, singled and scored in the fifth and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Junior shortstop Zach Donahue (South Windsor) reached safely for the 19th consecutive game. Batting leadoff, he walked and scored in the fourth but also had a sacrifice bunt and drove in a run with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly.
Making his first career start as the starting rightfielder and No. 7 batter in the lineup, sophomore outfielder Josh Cofrancesco (Southington) reached safely three times with two hits and a hit-by-pitch and scored a run. In his second at-bat this year, sophomore Preston Irby (Bridgeport) contributed his first hit and first RBI of the year off the bench with a sixth-inning single.
In relief of Benincaso, junior righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) struck out the three batters he faced in the eighth and sophomore righty Nolan Lincoln (Londonderry) closed out the game with a 1-2-3 ninth. In all, Eastern's three pitchers struck out 12 without a walk, and allowed six hits and hit two batters.
Malcom's three-run home run in the first staked Benincaso to the early lead but the AMCATS answered with their only two runs of the game in the third on junior second baseman James Powers' two-out, two-run double that drew chalk down the left field line. Powers stole third but Benincaso left him there with an inning-ending ground ball to Donahue.
In the last six games, Malcom has batted .667 (14-for-21) with 20 RBI, ten runs and 26 total bases to improve his batting average from .341 to a team-leading .452. In that six-game stretch, Broadhurst is batting a team-leading .682 (15-for-22) with 12 RBI, 17 runs and also 26 total bases to raise his average from .352 to .447 (second only to Malcom).
Eastern visits the University of Southern Maine Saturday at noon in a Little East Conference doubleheader.