RINDGE, N.H. – Junior leftfielder Andrew Scully (Stratford) drove in the only run needed by the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team in either game as the Warriors opened defense of their Little East Conference regular-season title with 13-0, 3-0 wins over Plymouth State University Monday night at Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field on the Franklin Pierce University campus.

In his second career start in the second game, first-year sophomore lefty transfer Orlando Gonzalez (Montville) limited Plymouth State (4-8, 0-2 LEC) to two hits and two walks while fanning 16 in eight innings to earn his first collegiate victory in his first decision for Eastern (5-5, 2-0 LEC), a winner of four straight. The Warriors were playing their first games up north since concluding a 3-5 Florida trip 11 days ago.

 In the first game, junior righty Patrick O'Neill (Thomaston) shut down the Panthers on six hits in his six-inning stint and Scully, junior catcher Tim Budd (Cheshire) and freshman first baseman Zach Wilkins (Lindenhurst, NY) combined to drive in 11 runs in Eastern's 12-hit attack. O'Neill fanned six and walked one and also hit a batter.

In the second game, Scully broke up a pitcher's duel between Gonzalez and Plymouth senior righty Cody Gilchrist (1-2) by driving in junior transfer third baseman Chad Adams (Ware, MA) with a one-out single through the left side, and Adams made it 3-0 in the eighth with a one-out, two-run opposite field single down the right field line. Gonzalez, who fanned 11 batters in 9 1/3 innings at Division II Southern New Hampshire University in 2013 before undergoing Tommy John surgery, gave up a one-out double in the first and a two-out single to center in the fifth in Monday's win. Junior righty closer Adam Merritt (Seymour) hit two batters but stranded them in the ninth to gain his first save. Merritt has not allowed an earned run in 35 1/3 career innings.

Gonzalez and Gilchrist combined to strike out 28 batters. Twelve of Gilchrist's 19 outs came by strikeout. He fanned at least two in each of the first five innings, striking out the side in the second.  Gonzalez set down five in a row on strikes beginning with the final out of the second.

In the first game, Scully drove in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first with a two-out triple, then launched a grand slam in the fifth to give him five RBI on the day. Wilkins recorded his first collegiate hit with a three-run, two-out triple in the third inning after starting pitcher Curtis Arsenault walked the bases loaded. Arsenault walked Budd with the bases loaded in the third prior to Wilkins' bases-clearing triple, and Budd added a two-run, two-out single in the fourth.

Senior righttfielder Kyle Hart (Guilford) walked and scored in the fifth, extending his on-base streak to nine games. Adams reached safely in each of his first four at-bats, and scored four runs. He singled and scored in the first, walked and scored in the third, doubled to lead off the fourth against new pitcher Matt Doxter and was hit by a pitch and scored in the fifth.

Six Eastern batters who either walked or were hit by a pitch eventually scored.

Eastern visits Endicott College Tuesday at 4 p.m. in a non-conference game. The Gulls are ranked No. 6 in New England after reaching the NCAA Division III New England Regional title game a year ago.