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Box Score 2 MANSFIELD, Conn. – Freshman righty Jordan Muchin (West Hartford) pitched a complete-game four-hitter for the first shutout by a member of the Eastern Connecticut State University staff as the Warriors completed a Little East Conference baseball sweep of Rhode Island College Saturday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadiuim.
Now 9-1 at home, Eastern (17-10, 7-2 LEC) won the first game, 5-1, behind the combined four-hit pitching of sophomore lefty Jacob Smith (East Longmeadow, MA) and freshman lefty Nick Rascati (Wallingford), and Muchin lowered his ERA to a staff-best 1.07 by scattering four hits and fanning six in a 5-0 victory in the nightcap.
The first-game victory gave Eastern head coach
Matt LaBranche his 500
th coaching triumph (501-223) in his 17
th season of coaching. LaBranche is 72-36 in three years at Eastern after compiling a 14-year record of 429-187 at Western New England University.
By sweeping, Eastern and University of Southern Maine break from a three-way logjam atop the conference. The Huskies took two from Plymouth State University, which fell to third place, two games behind the leaders.
Muchin walked two, facing only five batters over the minimum. After allowing TJ Lynch's leadoff single in the second, Muchin did not allow another hit until Austin Barry's (North Kingstown, RI) one-out single in the sixth.
Smith was credited with his first win of the year in his fifth start, pitching into the seventh inning before giving way to Rascati as the Anchormen were scoring their only run of the day to cut Eastern's lead to 3-1. Rascati stranded two baserunners with an inning-ending strikeout and went on to record his third save of the year.
Leading 3-1 in the second game, the Warriors tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh when they chased RIC senior lefty Dylan Pingitore (Johnston, RI), knocking him out with five hits in the inning. White drove in Sirois with a two-out double and senior third baseman
Chad Adams (Ware, MA) added a run-scoring single.
On the day, sophomore first baseman
D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA) had four hits for Eastern, with sophomore second baseman
Mike Funaro (Northford), junior rightfielder
Pat Sirois (Cromwell) and junior shortstop
Christine Budzik (Cromwell) all collecting three. Frshman leftfielder
Alexander White (West Hartford) doubled twice and drove in three runs and senior catcher
Tim Budd (Cheshire) had two hits and two RBI.
Sophomore rightfielder Edward Apice and Barry each had two hits for RIC, which had won three of its previous four. The Anchormen did not have an extra-base it.
Eastern hosts Roger Williams University Sunday in a 1 p.m. non-conference makeup game.
