BOSTON – Righty John Parker (Brunswick, ME) became the second straight freshman starter to pitch into the sixth inning, and junior Pat Sirois (Cromwell) drove in three runs with three hits as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team remained in the winners' bracket of the 2016 Little East Conference tournament with a 9-7 victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Thursday night at Monan Park.

Fifth-seeded Eastern (21-17, 2-0) and sixth-seeded Western Connecticut (21-18, 2-0) – the two remaining undefeated teams – meet for the third time this year Friday at noon. The winner of that game will need one triumph to win the tournament, while the loser plays an elimination game Friday night at 7 p.m. The teams split the season series at Eastern, the Warriors winning 6-1 April 19 and the Colonials taking a 1-0 decision on the final day of the regular season this past Saturday.

Among the four remaining teams in the original field of six, top-seeded UMass Boston (1-1) and No. 3 UMass Dartmouth (1-1) meet in an elimination game Friday at 3:30 p.m. The winner faces the Eastern-Western loser at 7 p.m. in an elimination game. The Eastern-Western loser would need three victories to claim the crown.

The Warriors have won their opening two LEC tournament games three times in the last four years, capturing the 2014 tourney crown. Eastern has won eight of 19 LEC tournament titles – three more than its nearest competitor – while Western claimed its one crown in 2002 on top-seeded Eastern's home field. In two tournament games this year, Eastern has scored 22 runs on 28 hits, half of the hits for extra bases.

The team's opening 13-6 win over defending champion University of Southern Maine Wednesday halted a six-game slide which found the Warriors scoring two or less runs in three of those games.

"We've been streaky all year, but with a couple of days off (before the tournament), we've gotten into the right mindset," noted third-year head coach Matt LaBranche in a post-game interview with the UMass Boston Beacon Broadcasting Network. "We knew that we could compete. We've tried to be more aggressive (at the plate), attacking more and being aggressive early in the count." Referring to Friday's scheduled game between the tournament's two lowest seeds, LaBranche noted that "it should be a close, hard-fought game. The kids know each other, it's a friendly rivalry. Western is loose and confident, as are we."

Eastern never trailed against UMass Dartmouth, breaking a 2-2 tie with four runs in the bottom of the second on a one-out double by senior captain Tim Budd (Cheshire), RBI single by junior Christian Budzik (Cromwell) two-out RBI single by Sirois, run-scoring triple by freshman Alexander White (West Hartford) and RBI double by Alex Zachary (Enfield).

As did freshman righty Jordan Muchin (West Hartford) in Wednesday's win over Southern Maine, Parker (4-3) pitched 5 2/3 innings for the victory. The 6-four-4 inch, 240-pounder gave up six hits and four runs while fanning six and walking three en route to his first win since April 19.

White, who broke an 0-for-28 slump with a three-run double in the ninth inning against Southern Maine, had three hits, including a double and triple, and senior Chad Adams (Ware, MA) stroked his third home run of the year. Sirois gave the Warriors two key insurance runs and a 9-5 lead with a two-out, two-run double in the eighth.

Junior righty Sam Kosterich (Stamford) closed out the win for the second straight day, earning his sixth save – first since April 9 – by getting the final three outs after UMass Dartmouth (18-21) opened the ninth with back-to-back doubles off freshman lefty Nick Rascati (Wallingford) to cut the Eastern lead to 9-6.

Sophomore lefty Mac Curran (3-4), who had limited Eastern to five hits in 7 1/3 innings in the Corsair's regular-season victory, was lifted after allowing six runs on six hits through two innings.

Four Eastern errors accounted for only one unearned run, allowed by Parker.

Zachary's second-inning double extended his hitting streak to 16. With a hit and walk, Budzik has reached safely in his last 18 games. Sophomore D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA) did not reach (in four plate appearances) for the first time in 24 games.

Like Southern Maine, UMass Dartmouth had swept Eastern in the regular season,  3-2 in 11 innings and 10-9 in 14 innings at Dartmouth, MA. The LEC tournament win is Eastern's eighth in the last ten meetings against the Corsairs.

Eastern has won three straight LEC tournament games against Western since Western  upended the top-seeded Warriors, 5-4 on Eastern's home field  in 2005.

Last year, Eastern eliminated the Colonials, 8-5, in the second round of the tournament held at the University of Southern Maine.