Box Score MEDFORD, Mass. – The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team scored 11 runs in the top of the eighth inning to cut an 14-run deficit to three before Tufts University hung on for a 15-12 non-conference victory Monday afternoon at Huskins Field.
Trailing 15-1, Eastern (19-14) sent 15 batters to the plate against three Tufts (18-14) pitchers in the eighth, collecting eight hits and benefitting from two errors, a walk and hit-by-pitch and had the tying run on deck before Jamie Weiss got the second out on freshman Jack Rich's (Meriden) sacrifice fly and an inning-ending outfield fly ball.
The Warriors managed a two-out baserunner in the ninth when senior second baseman Mike Funaro (Northford) was hit by a pitch, but Weiss got a fly ball to right to preserve an easy win which almost got away.
In the eighth inning which produced 11 runs – which was eight runs and two hits shy of the program's inning record – senior first baseman D.J. Scavone (Auburn, MA) hit a three-run home run – his team-leading seventh of the year and 15th of his career – but it was the only extra-base hit and the only hit which delivered more than one run in the inning.
Contributing RBI singles in the eighth were sophomore pinch hitter Jake LeFevre (Mansfield), freshman catcher Kevin Murphy (Springfield, MA), junior shortstop Dale Keller (Oxford), junior centerfielder Alexander White (West Hartford), and senior third baseman Collin Russell (Sandwich, MA). Funaro was also walked with the bases loaded and Rich hit his sacrifice fly to drive in the final run.
In the inning, Russell, Scavone, LeFevre and Keller all reached twice.
Russell had two singles and scored two runs – the first of the two hits coming as a pinch hitter; Scavone also singled and scored twice, LeFevre also reached on an error and scored twice, and Keller also was hit by a pitch.
Leading 3-1, Tufts appeared to have broken the game open by scoring 12 runs in the middle innings on ten hits, with No. 2 hitter Tommy O'Hara driving in three runs with a bases-clearing triple in the fourth and a two-run double in the sixth.
In his first career start, sophomore Sam Gagnon (Andover) retired eight in a row after the first four Jumbos of the first reached base, but a two-out double and RBI single pushed Tufts' lead to 3-1 after three innings, and the hosts chased Gagnon from the mound in a five-run fourth which made it 9-1. Freshman righty John Ferrara (Northhampton, MA) and junior righty Cole Ogorzalek (Portland) each pitched a hitless inning to close out the game, allowing just one baserunner between them.
Scavone extended his streak of reaching base to 19 games in a row, with Keller now at 14, Funaro and White at 11. Scavone's three RBI moved him to within four of 100 in his career.
Scavone also recorded 11 putouts in the field to move within 16 of breaking the program career record of 1,257 putouts, set between 1985 and 1988 by Jeff Johnson. The former national record ranked eighth all-time – second in New England -- in Division III through 2017.
It was game mildly reminiscent of Eastern's epic 28-18 win over Tufts 35 years ago at the old Alumni Field, when the Jumbos sent 15 batters to the plate and scored 11 runs in the top of the first inning, and added five more in the third before the Warriors batted around in the seventh and eighth (after batting around in a six-run first) to score 17 runs and pull away for a ten-run win.
The near-miss left Eastern a win shy of recording at least 20 wins for the 47th consecutive season.
The Warriors host Manhattanville College Wednesday in a non-conference game at 6 p.m. that is the final home game of the season before visiting the University of Southern Maine Friday at noon for a Little East Conference doubleheader on the final day of the regular season. The LEC tournament begins a week from Wednesday, with Eastern having already clinched one of the six berths.
