Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Junior righthander Jordan Muchin (West Hartford) pitched a seven-hitter over seven innings and senior first baseman D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA) broke an early tie with a two-run home run to lead the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team to a 7-4 Little East Conference victory over Plymouth State University en route to a sweep of Sunday's doubleheader at Plymouth Park.
In the second game, senior second baseman Collin Russell (Sandwich, MA) stroked a go-ahead two-out single in the top of the seventh that scored two runs and junior righty Cole Ogorzalek (Portland) did not allow a ball out of the infield in retiring the final 12 batters in order as Eastern (16-11, 6-3 LEC) completed the sweep with a 6-5 victory and improve its record to 7-3 in the last ten games.
Playing its first home games of the year, Plymouth (10-13, 3-5 LEC) has dropped eight of its last nine. Plymouth had swept the Warriors for the first time ever when the teams meet at Plymouth in 2016.
By sweeping, Eastern moves into a three-way tie for second place in the conference with Southern Maine and Rhode Island College, three games back of undefeated UMass Boston.
Game 1
Eastern 7, Plymouth State 4
Scavone broke a 1-1 tie with his team-leading sixth home run of the season – a two-run shot in the third– to give the Warriors the lead for good. Eastern added two unearned runs in the fifth on two walks and an infield error to move out to a 5-1 lead.
The Little East leader with 53 strikeouts this year, Muchin (3-3) lowered his earned run average in three career starts against Plymouth to 1.28 in 21 1/3 innings by allowing only two earned runs. He struck out nine and walked two before giving way to sophomore righty Drew Alexopoulos (Hanson, MA) after seven innings on the long end of a 6-3 lead.
En route to his second save in his last three appearances, Alexopoulos walked three but did not allow a hit over the final two innings, when he retired the potential tying run after walking the bases loaded with a game-ending strikeout-- his second of the game—of pinch hitter Andrew Salta.
Batting cleanup, Scavone reached four times against three Plymouth pitchers with two hits and two walks, scored three runs and drove in two with his 14th career home run. Junior centerfielder and leadoff hitter Alexander White (West Hartford) reached three times with two hits and a walk and scored run, while senior catcher Merlyn Herrera (La Yaquiza, DR) had two hits and drove in a run. Freshman rightfielder Anthony Stigler (Mansfield) added a hit and RBI.
Muchin has pitched at least seven innings in three career regular-season starts against Plymouth, tossing a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts in last year's 10-0 victory in the home-opener. In those seven starts, he has fanned 27 and walked five and allowed 13 hits and three earned runs. Sunday, he threw 75 of his 119 pitches for strikes.
Game 2
Eastern Conn. 6, Plymouth State U. 5
With relief pitcher Nick Rascati (Wallingford) making the third start of his 55th career appearance, the teams traded runs in the third inning. Eastern struck first in the third when Russell and All-Region third baseman Alex Parkos (Meriden) opened with singles and after Herrera walked to load the bases with two out, two runs scored on Alexopoulos' infield single to short and an ensuing error.
The Panthers tied the game in their half of the inning with two unearned runs off Rascati, who entered play with a staff-best 2.91 ERA in 12 appearances.
The Warriors broke the tie in the fifth on Plymouth's ninth error of the day and White's two-run single that vaulted Eastern into a 4-2 lead, but Plymouth took its first – and only -- lead, 5-4, in the bottom of the inning on three errors, Josh Goulet's RBI double and a sacrifice fly.
Rascati allowed only two earned runs on three hits with four strikeouts but walked three and threw nearly 100 pitches before giving way to Ogorzalek with the Warriors trailing, 5-4, after five innings.
After Ogorzalek retired the side on three ground balls in the bottom of the sixth, Russell drilled a two-out single in the top of the seventh to drive in White, with junior leftfielder Ryan Hood (Arlington, MA) also scoring for what proved to be the winning run when the ball was misplayed in the outfield to give Eastern a 6-5 lead that Ogorzalek made stand up.
The team leader in on-base percentage, junior shortstop Dale Keller (Oxford) was aboard five times with three hits and two walks from the eighth spot in the order, with Russell reaching with two hits.
In his career-high four-inning stint, Ogorzalek (2-1) was untouchable. He retired 12 batters on five ground balls, three strikeouts, two infield pops, an infield liner and a foul out. He threw 32 of his 49 pitches for strikes.
Having thrown their pitching ace Saturday to beat nationally-ranked conference foe Southern Maine, Plymouth utilized four pitchers with a combined total of 18 innings pitched in the second game.
In the doubleheader, Plymouth had ten hits and ten errors and Eastern 20 hits (ten in each game) and eight errors, with nine of the 22 combined runs on the day unearned.
Eastern visits Western Connecticut Tuesday at 4 p.m. in a conference game. Like Plymouth, the game would represent Western's home-opener.
