GORHAM, Maine – The No. 2 nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team broke a tie with a run in the sixth and added two in the seventh and senior lefty Aidan Dunn (Westfield, MA) picked up his first career save with two scoreless innings as the Warriors completed a Little East Conference sweep with a 6-4 victory in the second game Friday night at Ed Flaherty Field.
In the first game, junior righty Billy Oldham (Brookfield) pitched a three-hitter over the first seven innings and Eastern (22-2, 9-0 LEC) scored seven runs after there were two out and none on the first inning in a 9-1 victory over Southern Maine (11-14, 4-4 LEC).
The games were a battle of two of last year's NCAA Division III tournament qualifiers and between programs which have won or shared 23 of 25 LEC regular-season championships and 15 of 24 LEC tournaments. It was the second straight time that the Warriors have swept the Huskies on their home field in LEC regular-season play. In 2018, Eastern won by 2-0 and 7-5 before the clubs split two non-conference games last year in Gorham after the teams split the LEC regular-season pair at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Eastern (10-0) remained perfect on its opponent's home field this year and improved to 16-1 away from the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Eastern senior All-America leftfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY) reached safely in each game to move to within eight of the program record of 50 consecutive games having reached base, set by All-America Joe Funaro during the 1994 and 1995 seasons.
Game 1: Eastern Conn. 9, U. of Southern Maine 1
Eastern entered the game riding an eight-game winning streak while Southern Maine entered play riding a seven-game win streak after losing eight of its first 12.
Oldham (6-1) pitched seven full innings for the fifth time (fourth straight) in seven starts this year, remaining unbeaten (4-0) in four starts against conference opponents this year and lowering his LEC earned-run average to 1.61 in 28.0 innings. He struck out five and walked four before junior righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) faced only seven batters in setting down the Huskies over the final two innings.
Eastern scored seven of its runs after there were two out and none on in the first, with eight straight batters reaching safely against senior righty Joshua Joy (2-4). Mesagno and senior DH Jack Rich (Meriden) each drove in runs with doubles in the inning and after a two-out infield error accounted for another run, junior shortstop Zach Donahue (South Windsor) plated two more runs with a single in his second at-bat of the inning.
Donahue and Rich each drove in three runs with two hits in the 13-hit attack against three USM pitchers and senior All-America third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) had two singles and scored twice. First-year graduate transfer first baseman Josh Tower (Auburn, MA) had three hits, scored twice and drove in Rich with the fourth run of the first inning.
Game 2: Eastern Conn. 6, U. of Southern Maine 4
Eastern scored three times in the fourth to take a one-run lead but Southern Maine tied the game with a single run in the fifth before the Warriors scored once in the sixth and twice in the seventh. Rich doubled home Mesagno (single) in the sixth to put the Warriors ahead for good, and Donahue singled in sophomore outfielder Jason Claiborn (Prospect) and senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury) scored on a passed ball as Eastern added two insurance runs in the seventh.
Dunn, who had pitched the first six innings in Tuesday's LEC home win over Western Connecticut, struck out three (in the ninth inning) and was not charged with a run after taking over in the eighth with two aboard and none out and Eastern leading, 6-3. Dunn gave up a single to load the bases, but got a double play on a sacrifice fly when Bagdasarian doubled up a runner and third, and ended the inning on a line drive to Donahue at short.
This game featured two of the top pitchers on each team in Eastern senior righty Bryan Albee (Killingly) and Southern Maine sophomore righty Bryce Afthim. Albee (8-0) allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits while pitching into the sixth inning to improve to 14-1 lifetime and lower his career ERA to 3.45. He leads this year's staff with a 1.18 ERA in 38 innings. Afthim (4-2) was the tough-luck loser when four of the six runs charged to him were unearned thanks to three USM errors. He entered the game with a staff-leading 2.06 ERA in a staff-high 48 innings.
Broadhurst had three of Eastern's nine hits and Mesagno had two hits and two runs scored.
Eastern hosts Keene State college in an LEC game Tuesday at 4 p.m.