Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on three hits and an error to overcome a two-run deficit and claim an 8-6 victory over Wheaton College (MA) Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
At right: Adam Roderick
The win is the seventh straight and 11th in the last 12 contests for Eastern (14-4), ranked sixth in New England. Ranked second in New England and No. 25 in Division III, Wheaton (18-7-1) had a ten-game winning streak halted in losing to the Warriors for the second time in the last three meetings.
Wheaton scored single runs in the sixth and seventh to snap a 4-4 tie before Eastern answered with four runs in the eighth to improve to 7-1 at home this year. With one out, junior second baseman Corey Keane (Tolland) and first-year sophomore catcher Tim Budd (Cheshire) singled. After a fielder's choice and error loaded the bases, senior shortstop Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield) walked to force in one run, and senior DH Adam Roderick (West Hartford) greeted Wheaton relief ace Ryan Grant (seven saves in 11 appearances) with a single which plated the tying and go-ahead runs. Senior infielder Mike Vaccarelli's (Wolcott) infield ground ball sent home Lynch with an insurance run.
The fifth of five Eastern pitchers, sophomore righty Adam Merritt (Seymour) earned his fourth save by pitching a scoreless ninth. Wheaton's Apolinar De La Cruz opened the ninth with his first hit of the game, but Merritt got Mike Bisceglia ( 3-for-3 with two doubles and a hit-by-ppitch to that point) to ground into a 4-6-3 double play which was begun by Vaccarelli. Justin Silvestro's line drive to Lynch at short ended the game.
Trailing 3-1, the Lyons had rallied to take their first lead with three runs in the top of the fifth on Biscelglia's bases-clearing double to right-center before Eastern forced the only tie of the game with a run in the fifth on juior rightfielder Kyle Hart's (Guilford) two-out single.
Senior righty Greg Porter (Mystic) gained his fourth win in five decisions by pitching a perfect eighth inning before Eastern staged its winning rally in the bottom of the inning. Porter stranded a runner at second base in the inning by getting an infield popup and fly ball to right.
Justin Peluso of Wheaton had two hits and two RBI, driving in the first run of the game witih a first-inning sacrifice fly and singling in a run that gave the Lyons a 5-4 lead in the sixth. Making his first start in three weeks, Roderick led Eastern with three hits and two RBI and Hart and Keane added two hits each. Keane scored twice.
Eastern hosts Plymouth State University in a Little East Conference doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m.
