MANSFIELD, Conn. – Senior third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) hit two of the team's four home runs in the second game and the pitching staff extended a long scoreless streak into the eighth inning of the nightcap as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team remained undefeated in the Little East Conference with 5-0, 12-2 wins over Rhode Island College Friday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium. The second game was stopped after the Warriors scored four times in the bottom of the eighth to invoke the ten-run rule.
 

Ranked third in New England, Eastern (14-1, 8-0 LEC) extended its season win streak to eight and snapped a three-game losing streak at the hands of Rhode Island (5-7, 1-3 LEC). The Warriors have played all of their games at home this season.
 
After senior righty Josh Vincent (New London) lowered his earned run average for the third straight game to a season-low 0.36 by combining with sophomore righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) on the team's fourth shutout this year in the opener, Broadhurst belted his first two home runs of the season in the second game, with senior Drew Alexopoulos (Hanson, MA) also contributing his first of the season and junior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme) his team-tying third  to spark a 13-hit attack.
 
The pitching staff carried a streak of 27 scoreless innings into the eighth inning of Game 2 before the Anchormen broke through for their only runs of the afternoon on senior third baseman Ray Zincone's one-out, two-run double that scored junior rightfielder Nick D'Ambra and freshman first baseman Cal Parrillo.
 
Broadhurst reached in all five plate appearances in the nightcap, when he scored four times and drove in three runs with a two-run home run in the third and a two-out solo home run in the fifth. All of Eastern's runs in the second game came with two out.
 
The 3-through-6 hitters in the nightcap drove in a combined nine runs and scored six, with all four – senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury), Broadhurst, Alexopoulos and Malcom – all collecting two hits. Sophomore righty Billy Oldham (Brookfield) pitched a career-high seven innings of five-hit ball to gain his third win in three decisions in the second game. He fanned six and walked only one, throwing 73 of his 103 pitches for strikes.
 
Now 4-0, Vincent fanned seven in a career-high 7 2/3 innings in the first game before giving way to Furino after throwing 127 pitches. Making his staff-tyiing seventh appearance out of the bullpen, Furino came on for an inning-ending strikeout that stranded two runners in the eighth.
 
In the first game, freshman leadoff hitter Jason Claiborn (Prospect) recorded his second three-hit game of the year when he doubled leading off the first and scored on an infield ground ball; singled and scored on senior leftfielder John Mesagno's (Tappan, NY) 100^th career hit – a two-out, two-run double – and singled with two outs in the sixth. Senior DH Jack Rich (Meriden) also plated two runs in the game with ground balls that sent home Claiborn in the first and Mesagno in the third.
 
On the afternoon, Claiborn had five hits and scored four runs and Malcom and Broadhurst each reached five times, with Broadhurst scoring five runs and driving in three. Malcom had two hits and was hit-by-pitch three times and drove in four runs. Mesagno had three hits, drove in three runs and scored two and Bagdasarian reached four times with two hits and two walks and scored three times.
 
D'Ambra and Zincone each had three of RIC's 13 hits, with D'Ambra also reaching twice on walks.
 
Eastern committed only one error on the day – with Broadhurst picking up nine assists – to improve its season fielding average to .971. By allowing only two earned runs, the pitching staff lowered its ERA to 2.56 and with 17 strikeouts against only five walks and now has a season walk-to-strikeout ratio of 1-3.37.
 
Eastern visits Rhode Island for a pair of non-conference games Saturday at noon.