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Box Score 2 GORHAM, Maine -- Junior shortstop Sam Dexter hit a two-run home run to break a fifth-inning tie and propel top-seeded University of Southern Maine to a 4-2 victory over fifth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University in the championship game of the 2015 Little East Conference baseball tournament Saturday at the USM Baseball Stadium.
By winning its third LEC tournament title in four years and fifth overall, Southern Maine (31-13) qualifies automatically for the NCAA Division III tournament which gets underway Wednesday.
Eastern (23-17), which defeated Southern Maine in last year's LEC tournament championship game for its eighth title, had forced a decisive game by handing the Huskies their first tournament loss, 11-4, earlier Saturday. The win was Eastern's fourth straight in the tournament following a first-round loss Wednesday.
Dexter, who was 5-for-8 with two RBI and four runs scored on the day, homered with two out in the fifth after freshman Nick Bowie reached on an infield single to open the inning. Making only his second career start, freshman lefty Jacob Smith (East Longmeadow) struck out the next two batters before Dexter launched his eighth home run of the season to left field.
Trailing 3-1, Eastern made it 3-2 off complete-game winner Andrew Richards (11-4) with a run in the sixth when junior DH Andrew Scully (Stratford) was hit by a pitch, moved to second on senior left fielder Joe Perez' (North Branford) single, to third on junior third baseman Chad Adams' (Ware, MA) sacrifice bunt and scored on an infield ground ball by freshman first baseman D.J. Scavone's (Auburn, MA).
Making his 31st appearance but only his second start, the right-handed Richards, a senior, retired Eastern in order in the eighth and ninth, and after senior second baseman Corey Keane's (Tolland) two-out infield single in the ninth, ended the game on an infield pop. The hit in the final at-bat of his career was the 100th at Eastern for Keane, a three-year player at Eastern.
Smith (3-1) and sophomore lefty Ron Buchetto (Clinton) combined on a nine-hitter, fanning four and walking only one. Buchetto gave up only one hit – a two-out solo home run in the eighth – that gave USM a 4-2 lead.
Eastern battered five Southern Maine pitchers for 16 hits in the first game, with senior lefty Matt D'Orsi (West Hartford) pitching a complete-game eight-hitter in his second start of the season. D'Orsi (3-3) fanned four and walked two.
Half of Eastern's first-game hits went for extra bases, with Adams hitting his team-leading seventh home run. Scavone was 3-for-5 with a double, triple, two RBI and a run; junior catcher Tim Budd (Cheshire) 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI and two runs; Keane 2-for-5 with two runs and an RBI; senior rightfielder Kyle Hart (Guilford) 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI; and Scully 2-for-6 with a run.
