MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team failed to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning after loading the bases with none out in a tie game, then gave up  eight runs in the top of the tenth in a 12-4 non-conference loss to MIT Wednesday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.

After escaping the bottom of the ninth  by turning a botched Eastern (18-11) suicide squeeze with none out into a double play, MIT (19-10) sent 13 batters to the plate in the top of the tenth, scoring eight runs on four hits, three successive hit batsmen,  two walks and an infield error.

Two hit batsman with one out and the bases loaded pushed across the first two runs of the tenth, and after an RBI single by Austin Filiere made it 7-4, a bases loaded walk made it 8-4 and a sacrifice fly by Nate Rodman, two-run single by David Heller, RBI double from Kendall Helbert tacked on insurance runs.

Six Eastern pitchers combined to give up 13 hits and six walks and to hit six batters.

Ranked No. 8 in New England, it appeared that the Warriors would record a walk-off win by breaking a 4-4 tie after D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA)  led off the ninth with a long triple to center. After the bases were loaded on two intentional walks, Eastern attemped a suicide squeeze, but the ball was bunted into the air and turned into a double play which was started by pitcher winning pitcher Patrick Callahan. A ground ball out left the winning run stranded on third.

Scavone hit a three-run opposite-field home run to left – extending his hitting streak to 13 – to give Eastern a 3-1 lead in the second  but MIT later tied the game in the eighth on a walk and singles by Heller and Helbert. Eastern senior catcher Tim Budd (Cheshire) then picked Heller off second base to keep the game tied at that point.

Helbert and Heller each had four hits, with Helbert driving in three runs and Heller plating two and scoring two. Filliere reached five times with two hits and three walks, scored three times and drove in a run.

Scavone finished with two hits and drove in all four Eastern runs with his HR and a sixth-inning sacrifice fly that broke a 3-3 tie, and Alex Zachary (Enfield) singled three times and scored twice. Pat Sirois (Cromwell) extended his hitting streak to ten with a second-inning single.

Freshman lefty Nick Rascati (Wallingford) inherited a 3-2 lead from freshman starter John Parker (Brunswick, ME)  in the fifth inning and gave up only two hits and one (unearned) run before departing after seven innings with a 4-3 lead. The home loss was Eastern's second against ten wins.

Eastern hosts Manhattanville College Thursday at 6 p.m.