MANSFIELD, Conn. – Senior righty starter Josh Vincent (New London) pitched six shutout innings in the opener and sophomore righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings in relief in the second game as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team moved within a victory of clinching at least a share of its 13^th Little East Conference regular-season title with 10-0, 8-2 victories over Castleton University Saturday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
 
Ranked first in New England and 21^st nationally, Eastern (24-4, 12-1 LEC) capitalized on seven Castleton (9-15, 6-8 LEC) errors to score six unearned runs in the seven-inning, first-game win and the Warriors scored three runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to overcome an early 2-1 deficit in the second game.
 

With three LEC regular-season games remaining, Eastern holds a three-game game lead over Rhode Island College and holds the tie-breaker over the Anchormen by virtue of a 5-0, 12-2 home sweep of the Anchormen three weeks ago.
 
In 24 years, Eastern has won or shared 12 LEC regular-season titles. By winning this year's LEC regular-season title under third-year head coach Brian Hamm, the Warriors would have won their last three championships under three different head coaches.
 
In the opener Saturday, Vincent lowered his earned run average to 0.93 by scattering two hits and fanning ten without a walk over six innings and got early support when the Warriors struck for five runs in the first inning and built the lead to 8-0 with three more in the third.
 
In the nightcap, Furino gained his first career win to go along with three saves this year by limiting the Spartans to two hits after taking over for sophomore righty starter Billy Oldham (Brookfield) with one out, two runs in and the bases loaded in the fourth.  Furino got a swinging strikeout from the No. 9 batter, then prevented further damage by getting leadoff batter Armando Cardenas to fly to senior Jack Rich (Meriden) in right.
 
Furino struck out seven without a walk in lowering his ERA to 1.74 and improving his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 33-5. On the day, five Eastern pitchers scattered seven singles, fanned 25, walked only five and held Castleton to a .125 batting average.
 
Batting 8-9 in the order, junior shortstop Owen Marica (Haddam) and junior second baseman Noah Plantamuro (Bristol) combined for half of the team's 14 hits, scored four runs, drove in three and totaled eight assists and two putouts without an error.
 
Rich homered and tripled and senor captain John Mesagno (Tappen, NY) had two hits – including his fourth home run of the year -- scored three runs and drove in two. Batting fourth in the order, senior third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) reached eight times with two hits, five walks and a hit-by-pitch and scored three runs. He was officially 2-for-2, raising his average 12 percentage points to .419.
 
Freshman outfielder Jason Claiborn (Prospect) walked in Eastern's five-run first inning in the opener to extend his on-base streak to 24 (but had a 13-game hitting streak ended), but the leadoff hitter had the on-base streak snapped with an 0-for-5 in the second game.
 
Castleton's No. 3 hitter, first baseman Evan Keegan  had two hits while senior catcher Jeremy Johnson and sophomore shortstop Adam Newton both reached safely three times with two walks and a hit.
 
A winner of 18 of 20 home games this year, Eastern visits Castleton in a pair of non-conference games Sunday at 1 p.m.