SALISBURY, Md. – Senor lefty Francis Ferguson (Holden, MA) pitched a complete-game four-hitter with 11 strikeouts to lift the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team to a 5-3 victory over No. 6-ranked Salisbury University in the first game of a non-conference doubleheader Saturday at Williams Stadium.

In the second game, Eastern (21-8) scored five first-inning runs, out-hit Salisbury (26-7), 16-15, but left 11 runners stranded and the Gulls scored six times in the bottom of the third inning on six hits and one of Eastern's five errors in a 15-8 victory.

In the opener, Francis pitched the first complete game by an Eastern pitcher this year and the Warriors collected 13 hits off six Salisbury pitchers to down the Gulls in a re-match of the 2022 best-of-three national championship, won by Eastern in two games.

In the first game, five Eastern hitters had two hits each, with senior centerfielder Ray Leonzi (Trumbull) driving in two runs and scoring one. Eastern trailed 1-0 but pushed across three runs when Leonzi tripled in sophomore DH Ian Moser (Bellingham, MA) and junior second baseman Dylan Jackson (Manchester). Moser had doubled to lead off the inning and Jackson followed with a single. Senior catcher Hank Penders' (Wethersfield) single sent it Leonzi with the third run of the inning.

In the nightcap, senior righty starter Matthew Wootton (Milford) was staked to a 5-0 lead before taking the mound, but Salisbury got three back in the bottom of the inning and chased Wootton (3-1) in a six-run third inning. Wootton had entered play with a staff-leading 1.71 ERA.

Eastern returns to Little East Conference play Tuesday at Keene State College at 3 p.m.