AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Webster University scored four times in the first with the help of three extra-base hits and batted around in the fifth to tack on four more in a 12-3 baseball victory over Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team Friday morning at Lake Myrtle Park.

Playing the second of three straight games against teams ranked nationally in Division III in the pre-season,  No. 17 Eastern (0-2) was coming off a two-week layoff since its opening 3-1 loss to No. 15 Kean University. Webster (8-4) closed out its Florida trip with its fifth straight victory, three coming in the last five days against nationally-ranked teams.

Making his second straight start, junior righty Patrick O'Neill (Thomaston) was lifted during the Gorloks' five-run fourth inning that made it 10-1 as the first of four Eastern pitchers.  Webster was ranked No. 11 in the pre-season after spending time at No. 1 last year when it tied the program record with 37 wins and lost a pair of one-run games in the NCAA regional tournament.

Freshman lefty Josh Fleming (1-2) won his first collegiate game in his second start, scattering six hits and allowing only two earned runs before being removed while Eastern was scoring twice in the sixth on junior transfer Chad Adams' (Ware, MA) two-run triple which plated freshman Kyle Pileski (Bristol) and senior centerfielder Joe Perez (North Branford). Pileski had reached on an error in his first collegiate at-bat to open the inning. The RBI were the first in the Eastern career of Adams, who played the past two years at Division II College of Saint Rose.

Perez and Adams each had two hits for Eastern, which was limited to seven hits by three Webster pitchers.

In their collegiate debut, freshmen pitchers Merlyn Herrera (La Yaquiza, DR) and Dmitri O'Donnell (Meriden) combined  to allow four hits and three earned runs over the final three innings.

Eastern faces Rowan University, ranked No. 13 in the pre-season, Saturday at 5 p.m. at Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven.