Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team erased a four-run deficit after two innings and walked off with a ninth-inning run in a 6-5 Little East Conference victory over Western Connecticut State University Tuesday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
At right: Brendan Lynch leaps over Western catcher James Annell to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday afternoon. (Photo Dave Santerre)
Ranked second in New England and 26th nationally, Eastern (20-6, 8-2 Little East) completes a home-and-home sweep of Western (13-14, 3-7 Little East) after posting an 11-0 victory over the Colonials Friday at Danbury.
Eastern remains a game behind conference leader University of Southern Maine, which downed visiting University of Massachusetts Boston, 7-4, Tuesday. Western is in seventh place, a game ahead of Keene State College and a game behind three teams tied for fourth place .
Trailing 5-4, the Warriors tied the game in the seventh on junior rightfielder Kyle Hart's (Guilford) two-out RBI single which scored senior leftfielder Nik Ververis (Plainfield), who had tripled with two out. In the ninth, senior shortstop Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield) walked to open the inning, was sacrificed to second by senior first baseman Gavin Lavallee (New Milford) and moved to third on a passed ball. After an intentional walk, Hart put the ball in play in front of the plate but the throw to retire Lynch was wild, allowing him to cross the plate with the game-ending run.
Ververis's three-run home run tied the game 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth before Western regained the lead in the top of the sixth on a one-out double by Gus Constant, a single by Tre' Gause and a sacrifice fly by No. 9 batter John Fracker.
Junior lefty Matt D'Orsi (West Hartford) and sophomore righty Adam Merritt (Seymour) combined to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings in a relief of senior right-handed starter Pat Barnett (Windsor). The relievers scattered three hits and walked only one.
The sparkling outfield play of Ververis in the sixth and Hart in the eighth helped the Warriors record the victory. Hart made a diving catch to his left to rob Bobby Coyne's drive leading off the eighth to preserve a 5-5 tie. The play paid off after the Colonials threatened with singles latter in the inning. Ververis made a running, over-the-should catch on Fracker's drive a drive in the sixth that limited the potential damage to only a sacrifice fly.
Western roughed up Barnett for six hits when it jumped to a 4-0 lead after two innings, but the veteran settled down to pitch three scores innings before issuing a one-out double to Constant and Gause in the sixth that led to the Colonials taking their final lead, 5-4. Three of the five runs given up by Barnett were unerned. He fanned four without a walk. Merritt stranded two runners aboard in the eighth with an infield ground ball in relief of D'Orsi, and stranded the tying run at first in the ninth to even his record at 1-1.
Eastern hosts Western New England University Wednesday at 6 p.m.
