PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Defending Little East Conference champion Eastern Connecticut State University won an 8-5 slugfest in the third round of the 2023 Little East Conference baseball tournament Wednesday at Pontarelli Field to eliminate LEC regular-season champion and top seed and host Rhode Island College and move to within a victory of its second straight conference tournament title.
Fourteenth-ranked and second-seeded Eastern (33-10, 3-0 tournament) advances to the tournament championship round for the third straight season as the tournament's only unbeaten team and will meet fourth-seeded and once-beaten University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday at noon. To get there, Eastern avenged a pair of one-run regular-season losses to Rhode Island (30-13) at Pontarelli Field, losing the first game in the ninth inning on a leadoff home run and walk-off single.
UMass Boston (24-17, 2-1 tournament) opened the tournament with a 14-4 loss to No. 3 University of Southern Maine Wednesday but bounced back to round Rhode Island, 9-3 Thursday and mercy No. 6 Castleton University, 13-1, in seven innings Friday. Eastern beat No. 3 Massachusetts Dartmouth, 10-3 Wednesday and Southern Maine, 4-2, Thursday.
The Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first after the first three batters reached base. Junior shortstop Zach Donahue (South Windsor) opened the scoring by heading home from third on junior first baseman Ryan Parent's (Southington) ground out to first before junior rightfielder Jason Claiborn (Prospect) scored on junior leftfielder Josh Cofrancesco's (Southington) sacrifice fly to right.
It was 3-0 Eastern when the hosts got on the board in the top of the third. Daniel Trzepacz plated Cameron Santerre and Sean Helfrich with a single to right. He was eventually stranded at second when Cal Parrillo struck out to end the threat.
The Warriors stretched their lead to 7-2 with a four-run fifth. Claiborn scored from second on Parent's infield single, who followed senior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme) home two batters later on junior DH Alejandro Soriano's (Hartford) triple to the gap in right. He was then driven in by sophomore centerfielder Ray Leonzi's (Trumbull) single to center to cap the scoring in the frame. Leonzi was 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI on the day.
RIC got three of those runs back in the top of the sixth. Joey Coro drove Lucas McElroy and Parrillo with a one-out, bases-loaded double to right, and Cole Podedworny crossed the plate from third on Izaiah Rivera's sac-fly that cut the Anchormen's deficit to 7-5.
It was 8-5 Eastern heading to the top of the ninth, where RIC loaded the bases with just one out in the inning. Junior righty Nolan Lincoln (Longmeadow, MA) worked out of the jam by getting Trzepacz to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game and secure his third save of the year.
First-year righty Dylan Scudder (Simsbury) improved to 6-1 after allowing three runs on six hits while fanning six in his five innings of work for the Warriors. Senior righty Andre Jose (Windham) held RIC to just one hit while recording three strikeouts in his 3.1 innings of relief work before Lincoln got the final two outs of the contest.
Connor Davey took the loss for the Anchormen after giving up three runs on five hits and two walks over two-plus innings. Brenden Aldridge gave up four runs on four hits and two free passes over the next 2.2 innings before Colin Gauther calmed things down over the final 3.1 innings of the game, giving RIC a chance to rally for the win.
Eastern split with UMass Boston on the finale day of the regular season last Friday, winning, 7-5 and losing, 9-5. The loss ended a string of seven straight wins for Eastern over UMass Boston after the Beacons had won seven straight in the series.
UMass Boston is the only program to win three straight LEC titles (2017-19), downing Eastern in the final in 2018 in the only finals meeting between the programs. The Beacons have won four titles in all, having never lost once reaching the championship series. Eastern leads all LEC teams with ten tournament titles in 14 title appearances.