Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- Junior DH Gavin Lavallee (New Milford) and sophomore catcher Cory DeMedeiros (Fall River, MA) each hit their first career home runs and sophomore righty Brent Pelella (Southbury) lowered his earned run average to 0.71 in pitching the first seven innings as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team ended a three-game losing streak with a 10-1 non-conference win over Babson College Monday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
Making his third start, Pelella (2-0) allowed only one unearned run on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks, and Lavallee stroked a home run in a four-run fifth inning that allowed Eastern (14-8-1) to move out to a 7-0 lead.
Eastern matched its season-high with 14 hits, four coming in the four-run fifth, when the Warriors chased sophomore lefty Nick Malatos (Milton, MA) – making his first start -- in batting around. Eastern was aided by two walks, two wild pitches and a stolen base in the inning.
The top three hitters in the Eastern lineup – junior shortstop Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield), junior third baseman Mike Vaccarelli (Wolcott) and senior first baseman Joe Balowski (Berlin) – all had two hits and scored a run. Senior second baseman Drew Accomando (Monroe) hit safely for the 11th time in the last 12 games by matching his season high with three hits. Accomando doubled in the first run of the game with two outs in the bottom of the first, and singled and scored leading off the fifth and sixth innings. Sophomore leftfielder Kyle Hart (Guilford) reached safely three times with two singles and a walk and drove in runs with a single in the third and sacrifice fly in the sixth. He also walked and scored in the fifth.
Batting ninth, DeMedeiros socked a two-run home run with two out in the second and later singled and scored on a throwing error on a stolen base in the seventh.
Babson, which had baserunners in all but two innings, broke through in the sixth with its only run when No. 3 hitter Chris Kucher (Westwood, MA) doubled with two out, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a passed ball.
Kucher and freshman catcher George Crowley (Watertown, MA) each had two hits. Crowley singled in the second when the Beavers left runners on the corners and singled with one out in the seventh.
Eastern visits Bridgewater State University Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
