MANSFIELD, Conn. – Little East Conference home run leader Cam Seymour saved his only LEC tournament home run for the right time, slugging a two-run tournament-winning home run to left with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to carry second-seeded University of Southern Maine to a 7-6 victory over top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University Friday afternoon in the championship game of the 2021 LEC Tournament at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
 
The lefty-swinging freshman catcher/DH, who had had only five hits and one extra-base hit in five tournament games to that point, slugged the first pitch he saw with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning for his LEC-leading 12^th home run of the season to cap a Southern Maine (31-9) rally from five runs down in the seventh inning to give the Huskies their sixth LEC tournament championship – first since defeating Eastern (32-6) in the 2015 championship game at Gorham, ME.

Southern Maine gains the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament granted to the LEC tournament champion. Eastern is eligible for an at-large bid when the entire tournament field is announced Sunday evening.

It was an ironic turn of events for Eastern, which had erased 5-0 deficits in the middle innings to win its pod with comeback wins over three-time defending UMass Boston and UMass Dartmouth less than a week ago at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.
 
After blowing a 5-0 lead after six innings, Eastern re-gained the lead, 6-5, on senior third baseman Luke Broadhurst's (Stafford) 11^th home run – second of the championship round – on a one-strike pitch leading off the top of the ninth.
 
Making his only start in the five-game LEC tournament, No. 9 hitter Brogan Searle-Belanger led off the USM ninth with a double into the left field corner. With one out, Seymour launched the tournament-winning home run over the left field fence for only his sixth hit in five tournament games.
 
Eastern sophomore righty Billy Oldham (Brookfield) didn't allow a hit and only two baserunners through six innings as the Warriors piled up a 5-0 lead on solo home runs by senior leftfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY) in the first and Holden White (Wallingford) in the second and three runs in the fourth on five hits, four coming in succession to open the inning.
 
In the seventh, USM closed the gap to 5-4 by batting around and scoring four runs on four hits and two walks, chasing Oldham in the process. In that seventh inning,  Searle-Belanger drove in two runs with a two-out single after freshman tournament MVP Janek Luksza plated the first run with a single and leading hitter Tom Vesosky  late drove in the fourth one with a single.
 
Southern Maine finally pulled even, 5-5, by scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth on a one-out single by cleanup hitter Andrew Olszak, a sun-aided outfield error on a fly ball, and Luksza's opposite-field game-tying single to right.
 
On the first day of the championship series Thursday, the Warriors survived 15 stranded runners to win the opener, 6-2 in ten innings, on Mesagno's third game-winning hit of the five-game tournament. On Friday, Eastern was not as lucky, stranding 12 more runners, including two in four consecutive innings. After Broadhurst's go-ahead home run in the ninth, Eastern had another runner in scoring position with one out but senior righty Colton Lawrence got a fly ball to center for the second out and a ground ball which to second which deflected off him.
 
The third of five USM pitchers, senior righty Gage Feeney put his team in position to come back with five solid innings of middle relief. He entered while the Warriors were scoring three runs in the fourth for a 5-0 lead, and limited the Warriors to three hits and one run in five innings before surrendering Broadhurst's go-ahead home run.
 
In five tournament games, Luksza had nine hits, drove in five runs, scored three and handled 27 chances at second base with just one error. Vesosky had eight hits, four runs and four RBI and Olszak five hits, five runs and a pair of RBI. Senior third baseman baseman Andrew Hillier reached eight times in the tournament with three hits and five walks, scored three runs and drove in two.
 
In five tournament games, Eastern stroked 19 extra-base hits, including 11 home runs. Eastern junior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme) had a double and three homers, scored five runs and drove in four, while Mesagno had four home runs and a double, plated 11 runs and scored seven as the presumptive MVP until Seymour's heroics.  Broadhurst homered three times among his team-leading nine hits, drove in five runs and scored six. He also reached four times on walks.