MANSFIELD, Conn. – For the first time since 2016 and the first time under head coach Brian Hamm's leadership, top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University Baseball are Little East Conference champions after defeating fifth-seeded UMass Dartmouth in seven innings, 16-1, at Eastern Baseball Stadium in the Little East Conference Championship Game on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, Eastern is awarded the automatic bid extended to the Little East tournament champion and the Warriors will open in their 36th NCAA tournament Friday. Click here for the complete 60-team bracket, which will be announced Monday at noon on NCAA.com
 
The 16-run output was the most runs in the deciding game of the LEC Tournament, breaking the previous mark set in the first installment between the two teams in the 2003 title game, when Eastern defeated UMass Dartmouth, 15-0, at Eastern Baseball Stadium for their second-ever LEC title. The win on Saturday by the No. 1 nationally-ranked Warriors (39-3) earned them their 10^th LEC tournament title in 14 appearances and second against the Corsairs (18-23-1).
 
Winners of 13 consecutive games, including 27 of their last 28, the Warriors exploded on offense for 16 runs on 14 hits, their largest output since April 27^th at home versus Lasell University. The 16 runs were also the most runs put up by Eastern in a LEC Tournament game since their 20-1 win over Western Connecticut State University in the first round of their 2009 title run.
 
Senior right-handed pitcher Bryan Albee (Killingly) was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The right-hander became the first pitcher to be named Most Outstanding Player since UMass Boston's Bryan Kaufman after the 2017 tournament and first Eastern pitcher since All-America right-hander Shawn Gilblair earned it in 2009. Gilblair also won the award during the 2007 and 2008 tournament runs that the Warriors made.
 

Albee (10-0) started against six-seeded Plymouth State University, pitching eight shutout innings while allowing five hits and striking out seven batters on 108 pitches. The Killingly native came on in relief during the thrilling 8-7 victory over third-seeded UMass Boston to shut the door on the close affair with 2 2/3 innings of shutout baseball in which he allowed three hits, earned a strikeout, a walk, and his fourth save of the season on 39 pitches.
 
After losing their opening game to second-seeded Rhode Island College, 8-6, UMass Dartmouth rattled off three consecutive wins against Plymouth State, the Anchormen, and UMass Boston to make it to the title game against Eastern, their seventh appearance all time and first since 2019.
 
The offense was paced by junior infielder DJ Perron who entered the day as the hottest hitter in the tournament, going 8-for-18 with three home runs, 10 RBIs, a double, scoring six times, and swiping two bases. Perron accounted for 10 of the 35 runs scored by the Corsairs in the tournament before being held in check by senior left-hander Aidan Dunn (Westfield, MA), who got the start for the Warriors, stifling the junior who went 1-for-3 on the afternoon.
 
Dunn (5-0) earned his fifth win of the season, pitching the complete seven inning game while giving up one run on five hits while striking out five and walking one. Up 5-0 in the third inning, the left-hander was able to quell the UMass Dartmouth threat when they loaded the bases with nobody out. After junior utilityman Andrew Bryant reached on a fielders' choice, scoring a run, Dunn came back to strike out Perron and get sophomore designated hitter Andrew Possi to ground into an inning-ending double play to escape the jam with a 5-1 lead.
 
Graduate outfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY) entered the game 2-for-10 in the tournament before exploding with a 4-for-4 game in which he fell a home run short of the cycle. Mesagno drove in the game's first run in the second inning with an RBI single, part of a four-run Warrior inning, en route to a three-RBI game in which the Tappan, New York native scored four times.
 
Coming into the game in the fourth inning with his team up 5-1, senior second baseman Noah Plantamuro (Bristol) made his mark on the championship game with a 2-for-3 performance in which his fifth-inning RBI single helped break open the Warrior lead, 8-1, and his two-run RBI single in the seventh capped off the Eastern 16-run performance.
 

The Warriors scored 11 unanswered runs in the game, highlighted by back-to-back home runs from Mesagno and senior outfielder Jack Rich (Meriden) to start the fifth inning. A six-run sixth inning pushed the game into mercy rule territory as a Corsairs' error, two-RBI double from sophomore outfielder Jason Claiborn (Prospect), and heads up baserunning by junior shortstop Zach Donahue (South Windsor) on senior catcher Matt Malcom's (East Lyme) fielders' choice, ballooned Eastern's lead to 13 runs, 14-1.
 
In 34 innings, the Warrior pitching gave up just eight runs (five earned) in their 4-0 tournament run, combining for a 1.32 ERA while tagging their opponents for 35 runs (28 earned) in 32 innings leading to a 7.88 ERA.