MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team  erased a five-run deficit by scoring the final ten runs and gaining a Little East Conference split with a 12-7 second-game victory Saturday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadum.

UMass Dartmouth (21-15, 8-4 LEC) scored ten runs over its final three at-bats to rout Eastern (16-13, 5-6 LEC), 15-2,  in the opener. Junior rightfielder Kenny Michael had three doubles among his five hits to highlight a 22-hit UMass attack against five Eastern pitchers.

Trailing 7-2, Eastern struck for the final ten runs of the second game, tying the game, 7-7,  with three runs in the seventh and breaking the deadlock with five runs in the eight on five hits, a hit batsman, a throwing error and two passed balls. Senior All-America centerfielder Alex Zachary (Enfield) clouted a tie-breaking, two-run home run in the inning, two more runs scored on passed balls, and senior No. 8 hitter Christian Budzik (Cromwell) plated the fifth run with a two-out single to center.

Sophomore lefty Nick Rascati (Wallingford) closed out the Eastern win by retiring the final six batters in order – getting two on strikeouts and allowing only one ball out of the infield.

Sophomore third baseman and cleanup hitter Alex Parkos (Meriden) had four hits, drove in three and scored three in the second game, blasting a two-run home run in the fifth to cut UMD's lead to 7-4. The Warriors tied the game by batting around in the seventh and scoring three runs on consecutive hits by Zachary, freshman leftfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY) and Parkos. Mesagno drove in the first run of the inning with a single, Parkos plated the second run with a double, and with two out, junior first baseman DJ Scavone (Auburn, MA) tied the contest at 7-all with a single to center on the first pitch he saw from freshman losing pitcher Robbie Carrillo.

While six Eastern pitchers had little luck containing UMD hitters through the first 14 innings, sophomore righty Brian Hnatuk (Trumbull) and Rascati shut down the visitors over the final four innings of the second game, giving Eastern's bats an opportunity to heat up. The pair retired the final nine batters in order after UMD had not gone down 1-2-3 in any of the first 15 innings.

After giving up a double to the first batter he faced to open the sixth in his first inning of relief, Hnatuck walked two before ending the inning with a 4-6-3 double play begun by Budzik at second base. Hnatuk then got three fly ball outs to senior rightfielder Pat Sirois (Cromwell) to quickly dispose of the Corsairs in the seventh. Eastern countered with the three tying runs in the bottom of the inning.

Behind Parkos' four-hit game, five Eastern hitters had two hits each in the second game.

UMass moved out to a 5-0 lead after three innings of the first game and completed the rout with ten runs over its final three at-bats in a game when the Corsairs were never retired in order.

Senior righty Sean Callahan fanned six without a walk over the first eight innings of the opener, giving up nine hits and both runs and getting more than enough offense from his teammates.

For UMD in the first game, Michael doubled in a run in a three-run first inning, doubled again in the third after senior leftfielder Ezequiel Sanchez (Mantai, PR) homered to make it 5-0, singled in the fifth, doubled and scored in the three-run seventh which was led off by senior first baseman Taylor Cacciola's home run, and singled and scored in the three-run eighth.

Batting in front of Michael, Sanchez drove in two runs in the first inning of the first game with a double, drove in two more with his two-run homer in the third, singled in the fifth, and walked and scored in the seventh. Batting cleanup, Cassciola had three hits, scored four times and drove in two runs, while junior catcher Brandon Polignone had three RBI with a two-run single in the seventh and sacrifice fly in the eighth.

On the day, White and Parkos each had five hits, with Parkos doubling and homering. Sanchez and Michael each had six hits in two games, Sanchez scoring six times. Sanchez had a double, triple and home run, Michael three doubles and Caccioloa two doubles and a home run.

Eastern hosts Western Connecticut State University Sunday at 1 p.m. in a makeup conference game.