MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team scored six runs with two out in the bottom of the fifth inning and pulled away for a 12-2 non-conference victory over New England College in its 2023 home-opener Tuesday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Ranked No. 2 nationally in Tuesday's recent poll, Eastern (11-1) collected 14 hits off five New England College (3-7) pitchers, six of the hits good for extra bases.
Led by junior first baseman and cleanup hitter Ryan Parent (Southington), 11 different players contributed a hit, run or RBI. Parent improved his team-leading batting average to .393 by going 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scoring. Among his hits were his second home run of the season, which followed senior catcher Matt Malcom's (East Lyme) team-leading fifth home run of the year (29th of his career), which gave the Warriors a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Leading by that 2-0 score, the Warriors sent 11 batters to the plate in the fifth inning, scoring six runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batter. With two out and one on, the next seven batters reached safely, five of them coming around to score. Senior DH Colby Linnell (Prospect) and junior outfielders Jason Claiborn (Prospect) and Josh Cofrancesco (Southington) all doubled in the inning, two runners scoring on Cofrancesco and Linnell's two-baggers.
Five Eastern pitchers combined on a five-hitter with 11 strikeouts and two walks. Pressed into early duty when sophomore transfer Alec Lachniet (Windsor) left after one inning of his second career start due to an injury, junior righty Nolan Lincoln (Londonderry, NH) pitched the next four scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks while fanning four. Lincoln improved to 3-0 this year, 11-1 lifetime.
Behind Parent, junior shortstop and leadoff hitter Zach Donahue (South Windsor), Claiborn, Cofrancesco and Linnell all had two hits, with Donahue tripling in two runs in the seventh.
New England was one of only three teams last year to defeat the national champion Warriors. Since that home loss, the Warriors have won 48 of 50 games.
Eastern hosts Westfield State University Wednesday at 5 p.m. before opening defense of its Little East Conference regular-season title with a Saturday noon doubleheader at home against Plymouth State University.