AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Junior righty Brent Pelella (Southbury) and two relievers combined on a five-hit shutout and junior Joe Perez (North Branford) stroked a two-run single in a four-run sixth inning as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team wrapped up its seven-game Florida trip with an 8-0 victory over William Paterson University Friday afternoon.

At right: Joe Perez

In ending a six-game losing streak at the hands of William Paterson (4-5), Eastern (6-3) won its final three games on the trip, finishing 5-2. The Pioneers have lost four of their last five, the last three setbacks coming against New England opponents.

Making his first start of the season, Pelella (2-0) allowed only four singles while striking out seven and walking one over the first seven innings. He faced only four batters over the minimum, getting the help of an infield doubleplay to close out the fifth. He allowed only one runner to reach second base, that coming in the second inning in a scoreless game when he gave up two infield singles but induced a fly ball to senior rightfielder Nik Ververis (Plainfield) to end the threat.

Batting ninth, junior Brendan Germano's (Berlin) singled in a run in his first varsity at-bat to drive home the first run of the game, senior Adam Roderick (West Hartford) doubled to lead off the fourth and scored on a throwing error to make it 2-0, and senior Mike Vaccarelli's (Wolcott) sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 3-0 in the fifth when the Warriors chased Pioneer senior right Jake Menzo (1-1).

 Eastern broke the game open in the sixth when it batted around and scored four runs on a leadoff double by senior Gavin Lavallee (New Milford), two errors, two walks , a hit batter, a two-run single by Perez and sacrifice fly by Ververis.

Perez led Eastern with three hits, Ververis and Lavallee adding two and Lavallee scoring three times. Freshman Michael Thienel (Woodstock) walked twice and stole a base and scored a run.

Junior righty Tyler Cyr (Bristol) and sophomore righty Adam Merritt (Seymour) each contributed a scoreless inning to nail down the victory.

In Florida, junior Corey Keane (Tolland) led the Warriors with a .500 batting average (7-of-14), with Ververis at .407,  senior Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield) at.406 and Lavallee at .370. The team batted .302 with a .965 fielding percentage. Merritt did not allow an earned run in 5 1/3 innings. Pelella had a 2-0 record and 0.68 ERA in 13 1/3 innings with 17 strikeouts and three walks. Eleven pitchers combined on a 3.66 ERA with 55 strikeouts and only 27 walks.

Eastern visits MIT Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the first of three straight road games before opening its home and Little East Conference seasons Saturday with a noon doubleheader against Massachusetts Boston.