Tournament Status as It Pertains to Weather Delays

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 MANSFIELD, Conn. –   Brent Pelella (Southbury) pitched an eight-hitter over the first seven innings and Mike Vaccarelli (Wolcott)  reached base five times for the second straight game as host Eastern Connecticut State University moved into the winners' bracket game of the 2014 Little East Conference Baseball Tournament with a 10-5 victory over the University of Massachusetts Boston Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.

                                                            At right: Brent Pelella (Photo by Haley Heslin)

A winner of eight straight and  23 of its last 26, Eastern (30-7) faces No. 3 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (21-20) Friday at 11 a.m. in the winners' bracket final, with the winner needing one victory to claim the title. UMD knocked off No. 2 seed and two-time defending champion University of Southern Maine (29-11), 8-3, in Thursday night's final game. Southern Maine meets No. 6 seed Rhode Island College (13-22), which stayed alive with a 7-4 win over No. 5 Plymouth State University earlier Thursday, Friday at 2:30 p.m. A third game is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m.

Pelella (6-1), beaten by UMass Boston in the second game of a March 29 regular-season doubleheader in a two-inning relief stint that is his only loss, struck out nine and walked three and gave up only three earned runs and pitched six scoreless innings after giving up two runs in the first on doubles by Daniel Mantoni and Jamill Moquette and an infield throwing error. He was replaced after throwing 130 pitches.

The righty  was lifted after walking one and allowing two hits to the first three batters when the Beacons scored three times to cut Eastern's lead to 7-5.

The third Eastern pitcher in the eighth, Andrew Merritt (Seymour) picked up his fifth save by retiring the tying runs on a soft line drive to third base and a fly ball to right.

Vaccarelli followed Wednesday's 5-for-5 performance against Rhode Island College by tying the Eastern record for consecutive hits with hits in his first four at-bats against UMass Boston. The streak ended when he struck out on a 2-2 pitch in the ninth.

Andrew Scully (Stratford) drove in four runs for Eastern with a two-run single that pushed the Warriors into a 4-2 lead in the third, and hit his first career home run in the ninth with a two-run shot. Batting ninth, Joe Perez (North Branford) had two hits and scored two runs for Eastern, which reached the 30-win plateau for the 30th time in the last 37 years.

Mantoni, Jose Pena, Kyle Szatrowski and Charles LaPaglia each had two hits for UMass Boston.