MANSFIELD, Conn. – Two months ago, when Eastern Connecticut University and the University of Southern Maine opened their respective Little East Conference baseball seasons, you just knew that it was going to come down to this.

Top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University and second-seeded University of Southern Maine will play one game to decide the 2021 Little East Conference champion Friday at 1 p.m. after the teams split the first two games of the Best-of-Three Championship Series Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
 
Twelfth-ranked Eastern (32-5) ended Southern Maine's (30-9) 14-game win streak in the first game by scoring four runs in the top of the tenth inning in a 6-2, 10 inning victory for its 11^th straight victory that moved the Warriors within a game of their tenth LEC tournament title.
 
In the second game 15^th-ranked Southern Maine positioned itself for a sixth LEC tournament championship by scoring the tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the sixth and got scoreless relief from first-game  loser Bryce Afthim to, in turn, end the Warriors' long winning streak, as the teams split a doubleheader for the third time this season.
 
Now 22-3 at home, Eastern hosts Southern Maine (13-4  on the road) Friday with the victor being awarded a berth in the 2021 NCAA Division III Tournament, which gets underway next Thursday.
 
Solo home runs accounted for the first four runs of the first game – two by Eastern junior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme), one by USM No. 9 hitter Jason Komulainen and a tying homer by USM leadoff hitter Tom Vesosky  – before Eastern scored four times in the top of the tenth on senior leftfielder John Mesagno's (Tappan, NY) two-out, two-run home run – his third game-winning hit in three LEC tournament games – and senior first baseman Holden White's (Wallingford) two-run double.
 
Senior righty Bryan Albee (Killingly) and sophomore righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) combined to retire the final six batters of the game to preserve the win.

The Warriors survived leaving 15 runners on base in the first-game win.
 
Southern Maine improved to 23-0 this year when leading after seven innings in the second game, with Afthim (9-1) pitching  4 2/3 scoreless innings after taking over for junior righty starter Joshua Joy after Eastern had taken a 3-2 lead with two runs in the fifth on senior DH Jack Rich's (Meriden) RBI single and a throwing error.
 
Trailing 3-2, the Huskies scored the tying and winning runs in the sixth. Junior centerfielder Sam Troiano  doubled and freshman second baseman Janek Luksza singled and with two out and the bases loaded, Vesosky singled on a 1-2 pitch to chase home both runners. Vesosky lived to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs after checking his swing on an 0-2 -- the pitch was confirmed as a ball by first base umpire John DeGirolamo -- and after a high foul fly ball was misjudged and landed untouched near the USM dugout.
 
A freshman righty, Afthim replaced Joy with one out, two runs in and two runners on and Eastern leading 3-2 in the fifth and got an infield pop for the second out and a deep fly ball to leftfielder Dylan Hapworth, who held the ball while losing his balance while back peddling.
 
While USM was scoring the go-ahead runs in the sixth, Afthim was retiring eight straight before Eastern senior third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) reached on an infield error on a high fly ball to open the eighth. A sacrifice bunt and bad-hop base hit moved the tying run to third, but senior third baseman Andrew Hillier  fielded a hot smash by Eastern senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury) that ignited an inning-ending around-the-horn double play. Initially, it was ruled that USM sophomore first baseman Arlo Pike's foot had come off the bag on the conclusion of the play, but the call was later overturned after a short conference by the three umpires, nullifying Broadhurst's tying run.
 
In the ninth, Eastern freshman Jason Claiborn (Prospect) singled on a full count with two out, but Afthim got Mesagno on a one-strike ground ball to Luksza to end the game.

In two games, Malcom had five hits -- including his two solo home runs -- and also reached on a walk and handled 24 putouts without an error. Broadhurst also had five hits -- including a double and triple -- and made several standout defensive plays at third. Rich had four hits and Claiborn three.