Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 BROCKTON, Mass. – Batting consecutively in the heart of the Eastern Connecticut State University order, seniors Corey Keane (Tolland) and Kyle Hart (Guilford) and sophomore Pat Sirois (Cromwell) combined for eight hits, seven RBI and six runs and the Warriors used two big innings to salve a split of a Little East Conference doubleheader Sunday afternoon at Campanelli Stadium.
UMass Boston (10-9, 3-3 Little East) scored the final three runs to post a 7-5 win in the opener before Eastern (8-11, 3-3 Little East) scored seven times in the sixth to wipe out a 4-0 deficit – getting a pinch grand slam home run from freshman
D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA) to put the Warriors had for good -- and added four insurance runs in the ninth, three coming on Keane's third home run of the season.
The home run and RBIs were the first in the career of Scavone, who was 0-for-5 with four ground ball outs in the opener. The ninth-inning home run was the only hit of the game for Keane, while Hart was 4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI and Sirois 3-for-4 with a triple, two runs and two RBI. Sirois did not play in the opener and was 1-for-11 in the last four games.
First-year sophomore lefty Orlando Gonzalez (Montville) pitched into the sixth inning, allowing only one earned run to gain his second win in as many decisions. Gonzalez fanned seven with only one walk and lowered his ERA to 2.15. He has 35 strikeouts and nine walks in 29 1/3 innings. Junior righty Adam Merritt (Seymour) got the final four outs, fanning two, walking two and giving up one hit.
Eastern managed the split despite commiting nine errors in the doubleheader.
UMass Boston 7, Eastern Conn. 5
Eastern took a 5-4 lead into the fifth inning before the Beacons scored the final three unanswered runs. UMass tied the game in the fifth – spelling the end for O'Neill – and won the game with two unearned runs in the eighth to make a loser of senior lefty
Matt D'Orsi (West Hartford), now 0-3.
In the fifth, a leadoff double by catcher Todd Ezold and a two-out RBI double down the left field line by No. 9 hitter Nick Brother pulled the Beacons even. O'Neill stranded the go-ahead run in the form of Brother with an inning-ending strikeout, and after senior righty
Tyler Cyr (Bristol) retired six straight batters, UMass scored the winning runs in the eighth on an infield error, bunt single and No. 3 hitter Daniel Manto's two-out, two-run double to left-center.
The tying run came to bat for Eastern in the ninth, but Josh Cummiskey – the fifth UMass Boston pitcher -- got an outfield fly ball and infield ground ball to earn his second save of the season.
Only sophomore shortstop
Christian Budzik (Cromwell) managed more than one hit for Eastern, but junior catcher
Tim Budd (Cheshire) – batting ninth – drove in three runs with a second-inning sacrifice fly and two-run triple as part of Eastern's three-run fourth inning that gave the Warriors their third and final lead.
A .425 hitter on the season, Mantoni also tripled for UMass Boston and scored the first run in the Beacons' three-run third inning that gave them a 4-2 lead. Trevor Bouvier drove in Manto in that inning with his third home run of the season, a two-out blast to left.
Eastern hosts Amherst College in its home-opener Monday at 4 p.m.
