GORHAM, Maine - Senior Nick Ververis (Plainfield) had five hits, scored five times and drove in five runs over two games as No. 23 Eastern Connecticut State University swept No. 5 University of Southern Maine, 15-9 and 8-4, in a Little East Conference doubleheader Friday to at the USM Baseball Stadium that gives the Warriors a share of the LEC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed and hosting honors in next week's LEC tournament.

With the sweep, Eastern (27-7, 11-3 Little East) stretch their winning streak to five games.  The Huskies (28-10) had their four-game winning streak stopped and slip to 28-10. 

In first-round games Wednesday in the four-day, six-team Little East tournament at the Eastern Baseball Stadium, Eastern faces No. 6 Rhode Island College, No. 2 Southern Maine meets No. 5 Plymouth State University, and No. 3 Massachusetts Dartmouth faces No. 4 Massachusetts Boston.

In the opening game Friday, the Warriors jumped out to a 12-1 lead in the opening three innings taking advantage of a couple of fielding miscues for nine unearned runs.  The Warriors pounded out 16 hits against seven USM hurlers.

With a one-game, winner-take-all situation for the right to host the LEC tournament, the Warriors used a timely three-run homer from Ververis to break open a tight game and held off the Huskies in the nightcap.

Game One

 Ververis, senior Gavin Lavallee (New Milford) and sophomore Tim Budd (Cheshire) had three hits apiece for the Warriors.  Every Eastern starter had at least one hit in the game.  Junior Brent Pelella (Southbury), the second of four Warrior pitchers used, picked up his fifth win of the season.

For the Huskies, sophomore Sam Dexter was just a home run shy of hitting for the cycle going 5 for 6 at the plate.  It was Dexter's second five-hit game of the season.  Senior John Carey had three hits, and classmate Matt Verrier  had two hits and drove in five runs.  Sophomore starter Tyler Leavitt was tagged with his second loss against seven wins.

The Warriors did the big damage in the second inning sending 14 men to the plate en route to an eight-run explosion that erased a 1-0 deficit.  Junior Kyle Hart (Guilford) ignited the outburst with a two-run double down the right-field line.  Lavallee had a two-run single in the frame.  A costly Huskies error led to five of the runs being unearned.

Eastern added four more runs in third to as again a Huskies miscue cost the home side.  Lavallee had an RBI single in the inning.

USM chipped away at the huge Warrior lead through the middle innings.  Verrier had a bases-loaded double in the fifth to chase in three runs, and a two-run double as part of a three-run sixth inning that made it 15-8.

Game Two

 In contrast to the first game, Eastern senior starter Greg Porter (Mystic) and USM sophomore Shyler Scates posted zeroes through the first three innings.  Porter was magnificent setting down 12 straight USM hitters to open the game, the first five via the strikeout.

Eastern reached Scates for a single double in the fourth on Hart's RBI double.  The big blow in the game came in the fifth when Ververis greeted USM junior reliever Andrew Richards for his third homer of the season, a three-run shot over the left-center field fence.

Senior Forrest Chadwick finally solved Porter in the fifth for a leadoff single, and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Troy Thibodeau.

 The Warriors tacked on two runs in the sixth on senior Brendan Lynch's (Wethersfield, Conn.) two-run single to make it 6-1.  USM responded with a single run in the sixth on Chadwick's RBI single.

The Huskies closed the gap to 6-4 in the seventh on a two-run single by junior Jake Glauser.

Eastern picked up two insurance runs in the eighth as the Huskies defense committed a pair of errors.

Hart led Eastern's 12-hit attack with three hits.  Lynch, Ververis and senior Mike Vaccarelli (Wolcott) had two hits apiece.  Porter would go 6.1 innings to earn his sixth win of the season.

 Chadwick was the lone repeat hitter for the Huskies.  Scates absorbed his third loss against five wins.

 Game account courtesy of USM Sports Information