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Box Score 2 MANSFIELD, Conn. – The University of Southern Maine rode the seven-hit pitching of sophomore righty Dalton Rice for a 5-2 first-game win and pushed across the winning run in the top of the seventh inning of the nightcap on two hits and an infield error for a 2-1 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University and a sweep of a Little East Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
On the heels of a three-game losing streak, Southern Maine 11-7, 2-0 LEC) has won four straight after sweeping Eastern (10-6, 1-3 LEC) for the third straight time on Eastern's "home" field (in 2015, the games were played as Eastern's home games at Central Connecticut due to unplayable conditions at Eastern).
Eastern had 14 hits and eight errors in the doubleheader, leading to five unearned runs. The Huskies played flawless defense.
Rice (1-1) carried a 5-0 lead into the eighth inning of the opener and was lifted after allowing a one-out double in the ninth, departing with a 5-2 lead. Sophomore lefty Matt Correale allowed a single but a ground ball that deflected off of his leg resulted in a 1-6-4-3 game-ending double play.
Five Eastern (infield) errors accounted for four unearned runs in the opener, with the Huskies roughing up Eastern sophomore righty Jordan Muchin (West Hartford) for ten hits. Batting ninth in the order, freshman shortstop Andrew Olszak was 4-for-4 and handled six chances in the field without an error.
In the second game, the teams traded early runs -- junior DJ Scavone's (Auburn, MA) second-inning sacrifice fly giving the Warriors their only lead of the day and sophomore Zach Quintal's RBI double tying it on inning later – before the visitors knocked out Eastern lefty starter Ron Buchetto (Clinton) with the unearned run in the seventh. One-out singles by sophomores Jake Dexter and Devin Warren got the rally going and an infield error later accounted for the go-ahead run.
Dexter and Warren each had two hits for USM and sophomore Alex Parkos (Meriden) reached four times with a single, double and two walks. Senior three-year player Pat Sirois (Cromwell) collected his 100th hit in his three-year Eastern career with the first of two hits in the nightcap (he had his 99th hit in the first game). After extending his program-record hitting streak to 35 games in his last at-bat in the first game (RBI single in the eighth inning), senior All-America Alex Zachary (Enfield) reached safely for the 36th straight game in the nightcap with a fifth-inning walk, but went hitless in four plate appearances.
Senior Tom Fortier and Correale each pitched four-plus innings and each gave up only three hits in the second-game win, with Correale (3-1) following his first-game save with 4 1/3 innings of relief. Buchetto (1-1) allowed only five hits and one earned run before being lifted when the Huskies put together the go-ahead rally. Sophomore lefty Nick Rascati (Wallingford) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Buchetto, lowering his staff-best ERA to 0.52 in 17 1/3 innings. Rascati has been touched for an earned run in only one of a staff-high 11 appearances.
Eastern visits Roger Williams University Sunday at 1 p.m. in a non-conference game.
