GORHAM, Maine – Freshman left-hander Jacob Smith (East Longmeadow, MA) pitched 3 2/3 innings of hitless relief and Eastern Connecticut State University's  five second-inning runs held up as the fifth-seeded Warriors eliminated sixth-seeded Western Connecticut State University from the 2015 Little East Conference baseball tournament with an 8-5 win Thursday morning at the USM Baseball Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Maine.

Eastern (20-16) advances to play Friday at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game against No. 4 University of Massachusetts Boston (23-14), which dropped a 12-3 winners' bracket decision to No. 2 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in Thursday's final game. Eastern and UMass Boston split an Aprl 12 doubleheader at Brockton, MA.

Making his sixth career appearance, Smith (3-0) rescued sophomore left-handed starter Ron Buchetto (Clinton) with one out and two aboard while the Colonials were scoring three runs in the fourth to cut Eastern's early five-run lead to 5-4. Smith walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but got a called strikeout and foul pop out around an infield error to prevent Western from tying the game.

After giving up five runs on five hits in the second inning, Western junior righty Todd Lyons settled down, allowing only two balls out of the infield until Eastern junior DH Andrew Scully (Stratford) belted a one-strike pitch off the right field foul pole for a two-run home run in the eighth inning that provided Eastern with a four-run cushion (8-4).

At right: Joe Perez

The homer was only the second allowed by Lyons (3-4) in 67 innings this season and the first in five weeks for Scully, who snapped an 0-for-13 slump with his third round-tripper of the season.

Eastern batted around in the second inning against Lyons, who lost his fourth straight decision. Junior third baseman Chad Adams (Ware, MA) had the big blow with a two-run, two-out triple, with freshman first baseman D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA), junior catcher Tim Budd (Cheshire) Corey Keane (Tolland). With runners on second and third and one out in a scoreless game, sophomore leftfielder Pat Sirois's (Cromwell) ground ball to third was thrown low to the plate, opening the  door for the big inning. Perez made it 2-0 with an RBI single, Adams' triple made it 4-0, and Keane plated the final run when Western sophomore second baseman Joe Costa couldn't hang on to Keane's pop following a long run into shallow right field.

Trailing 5-1, Western chased Buchetto (3 1/3 innings, two earned runs on seven hits) by scoring three times in the fourth to cut the Warriors' lead to one. Run-scoring singles by sophomore catcher Dave Palladino and sophomore DH Peter Nanos and two Eastern infield errors accounted for the runs.

Smith dropped his season's ERA under 2.00 to 1.99 with 3 2/3 hitless and scoreless innings. After leaving the bases loaded in the fourth, Smith faced only ten batters over the next three innings, fanning two and hitting a batter. He retired five batters on outfield fly balls – two of them deep and flagged down by Sirois in center and senior rightfielder Kyle Hart (Guilford). All three of Smith's strikeouts were called.

Moved up to No. 2 spot in order to shore up yesterday's unproductive upper third of the order, Perez had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run. Following Scully's eighth-inning home run, Perez tripled through the gap in right and scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-4.