Box Score GORHAM, Maine – Senior centerfielder Mike Riemer (Ellington) and senior second baseman Drew Accomando (Monroe) stroked consecutive run-scoring singles with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team to a 10-9 win over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the opening game of the 2013 Little East Conference tournament at the USM Baseball Stadium.
A winner of its last six, second-seeded Eastern (29-11-1) advances in the winners' bracket to play Thursday at 3:30 p.m. against No. 4 seed University of Massachusetts Boston (16-21), which downed No. 3 Keene State College (18-22), 12-9, in the third of three games on the first day. UMass Dartmouth (15-22) plays No. 6 Western Connecticut State University (17-23) in an elimination game Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Western fell to No. 1 seed University of Southern Maine, 13-2, in Wednesday morning's tournament opener. Southern Maine (34-7) meets Keene State Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
UMass Dartmouth wiped out a three-run Eastern lead with five runs in the top of the fifth inning on two doubles and a triple and six hits in all to move out to a 7-5 lead. Later trailing 9-8, Eastern scored the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth to make for the fifth lead change in the contest.With one out, junior shortstop Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield) singled and stole his team-leading 18th base of the season. With two out, Riemer sent in the tying run with a single to left-center. An error allowed Riemer to move into scoring position, and Accomando singled up the middle to score Riemer with the go-ahead run.
Making his 28th appearance of the season – tying the season record -- senior righty Matt Purnell (Stafford Springs) got the final five outs of the game to earn his sixth win in seven decisions. Purnell surrendered the tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the eighth on a double by No. 3 batter George Aggostini, but got a pair of strikeouts to prevent further damage, then left the tying run at first in the ninth with a game-ending ground ball to Lynch.
Riemer and Accomando each had three hits and scored three runs, with Accomando also reaching with a walk. Junior leftfielder Tommy McKenna (Lexington, MA) had a two-run single in a three-run fourth inning that gave Eastern a 5-2 cushion.
Senior rightfielder Tyler Caserta (Stratford) was credited with three RBI on a two-out single that tied the game in the second, an infield ground ball in the three-run fourth, and a two-out single in the seventh that gave the Warriors an 8-7 lead in the seventh.
UMass ripped four Eastern pitchers for 17 hits, but were given only one walk, and the Corsairs stranded nine runners and hit into a double play. Junior righty Pat Barnett (Windsor) allowed only one run on five hits with three strikeouts over three innings after taking over for senior lefty starter Tom Darby (Middletown, RI) after the first four UMass batters reached safely in the Corsairs' five-run fifth.
Caserta is batting .393 (11-for-28) on a current eight-game hitting streak which has raised his batting average to a season-high .250. Accomando, batting cleanup for only the second time this year, has hit safely in his last seven.
UMass Boston came from three runs down against Keene to score four times in the sixth. Eastern swept UMass Boston, 2-0, 4-0, when the clubs met in the regular season at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, MA April 13.
