AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team coughed up a five-run lead when Elmhurst College sent 11 batters to the plate in the seventh inning and scored six unearned runs on five singles, two errors and a wild pitch in the Blue Jays' 9-7 victory in the Warriors' final game in Florida Friday morning at Lake Myrtle Park.

Behind senior righty starter Chuck Vogt (Windsor Locks) – who allowed only one run on three hits through the first four innings – Eastern (8-4) scored five runs in its first two at-bats and was in command of a 6-1 lead before Elmhurst (11-3) answered with six runs in the seventh to pull ahead, 7-6.  Three Eastern pitchers were unable to halt the rally, the Warriors also commiting consecutive one-out infield errors which fueled the comeback. Elmhurst No. 8 hitter Christian Ott drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a two-out, two-run single in the inning.

Vogt struck out four and walked two and departed with a 5-1 lead after four, but five relievers – three of them freshmen – pitched briefly and ineffectively.

Trailing 8-6, the Warriors got one back in the bottom of the eighth on freshman leftfielder Alexander  White's (West Hartford) bases-loaded sacrifice fly, but  left the tying run aboard when Elmhurst turned an inning-ending double play.  Elmhurst  righty Ben Havel got three ground balls in the ninth to record his first save of the season.

Making his first start of the season, Elmhurst closer Ben Modesitt was hit hard by Eastern, allowing eight hits and two walks without a strikeout before departing on the short end of a 5-1 score.  When Eastern scored five times in the first two innings, White had two singles and scored a run, freshman second baseman Ryan Hood (Arlington, MA) doubled,  hit a sacrifice fly and scored a run, senior third baseman Chad Adams (Ware, MA) contributed a two-run single, and freshman DH Alex Parkos (Meriden) added a sacrifice fly. In the second, the bottom three hitters in the order all reached and scored.

In Eastern's 12-hit attack, freshman DH William Coleman (Northford) delivered his first two collegiate hits and scored a run, with White, senior catcher Tim Budd (Cheshire) and senior rightfielder Pat Sirois (Cromwell) all contributing two hits.

Eastern, which won five and lost four in Florida, visits Wesleyan University Wednesday at 4 p.m.