MANSFIELD, Conn. – Sophomore righty Matthew Wootton (Milford) and sophomore lefty Dan Driscoll (Waterford) pitched back-to-back complete games and the No. 8 Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team got solo home runs in the second game to sweep the University of Southern Maine in a Little East Conference doubleheader, 3-2, 2-0, Saturday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
The two-time defending LEC regular-season champion and 2022 NCAA titlist, Eastern (23-5, 8-1 LEC) extended its winning streak against 2023 LEC pre-season favorite Southern Maine (9-15, 4-4 LEC) to five, dating back to last year's road sweep and a 5-0 victory in last year's LEC tournament at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Picked for a tie for third in the LEC pre-season poll, Eastern has the most wins in the conference and trails only University of Massachusetts Boston (7-0 LEC) in the conference standings.
Wootton (5-0) allowed nine hits, fanned four, hit a batter, and walked three and stranded 11 runners en route to his second complete game of the year. He threw 92 of his 120 pitches for strikes. Driscoll (6-1) pitched a three-hitter without a walk, striking out five and hitting two batters in his first complete game of the year and the staff's first shutout. He threw 70 of his 95 pitches for strikes.
In the second game, senior All-America catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme) hit his tenth home run of the season – matching last year's total – and 34th of his career (equaling the fourth-most in program history) to give Eastern a 1-0 lead with two out in the first inning, and junior DH Alejandro Soriano (Hartford) homered leading off the fourth to back Driscoll's pitching.
After trailing 2-0 in the third inning, Eastern won the opener on a two-out infield error in the bottom of the ninth inning. Malcom opened with a walk, advanced to second on a one-out wild pitch, to third on an outfield fly ball and scored the walk-off run when junior leftfielder Josh Cofrancesco's (Southington) ground ball to the right side was misplayed.
Eastern erased the early 2-0 deficit in the first game by scoring once in the third on leadoff hitter Zach Donahue's (South Windsor) fifth triple of the year (14th extra-base) which drove in sophomore centerfielder Ray Leonzi (Trumbull), who had singled with one out. Eastern tied the game with another run in the fourth when Malcom opened with a single, moved to second on a walk, to third on an outfield fly ball and came home on Cofrancesco's sacrifice fly.
Eastern continues Little East play Tuesday at Keene State College at 3 p.m.