Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- The Western New England University baseball team scored five runs on six hits in the first inning, added two more on two errors in the second and held off Eastern Connecticut State University's middle-inning rally to post an 8-6 non-conference victory Wednesday evening at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Ranked third in New England, Western New England (25-8) has won 17 of its last 20 and defeated Eastern (22-9-1), ranked fourth, for the sixth straight time after dropping 36 of the first 38 meetings in this series. Eastern had brought a nine-game winning streak into action.
Steve Ambrosino and Tim Clark poked two-out, two-run singles to highlight WNEU's five-run first inning, and errors allowed the first two batters to reach safely and Kyle McKelvey's sacrifice fly helped stake the Golden Bears to an early 7-0 lead.
Eastern freshman Sam Kosterich (Stamford) and junior Pat Barnett (Windsor) held WNEU to one run on one hit over the final seven innings and Eastern reached Golden Bear starter Trevor Breton for three runs in the fourth and chased him in a two-run fifth to cut the gap to 7-6.
While Kosterich and Barnett were stellar in relief for Eastern, Nick Salerno (3-0) and Kevin Jefferis combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Breton. The pair fanned five and was touched for only two hits.
Clinging to its one-run lead, Western New England added an insurance run in the seventh on McKelvey's second home run of the season with one out in the seventh, and Jefferis struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.
No Western New England batter had more than one hit, but third baseman Mike Rubinio, McKelvey, Clark and Ambrosino all drove in two runs.
Junior shortstop Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield) drove in two runs for Eastern with a fourth inning ground ball, but had a six-game hitting streak snapped.
Batting consecutively in the order, senior second baseman Drew Accomando (Monroe), junior DH Gavin Lavallee (New Milford), junior leftfielder Tommy McKenna (Lexington, MA) and senior rightfielder Tyler Caserta (Stratford) all had two hits for Eastern. Lavallee knocked in two runs, doubling in the team's first run in the second and singling in Accomando (walk) with the second run in the fifth. Accomando reached three time, scoring on each occasion.
First-team All-New England first baseman Joe Balowski (Berlin) cracked his first home run of the season leading off the fifth to slice the visitors' lead to 7-5.
The Golden Bears managed only one hit and one earned run off Kosterich over six innings and Barnett buzzed through six straight batters in the final two innings.
Eastern visits Wheaton College (MA) Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The Lyons, ranked third in New England and 13th nationally, won last year's NCAA Division III New England Regional Tournament at the Eastern Baseball Stadium and reached the national title game.
