ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team erased a three-run deficit by scoring seven runs in the middle innings to post a 10-7 victory over fourth-seeded Swarthmore College in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Rochester, NY Regional Tournament Friday morning at Towers Field.
 
With its 14^th consecutive win, No. 1-nationally-ranked Eastern (40-3) faces third-seeded Middlebury College (30-12) Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in a winners' bracket game. Middlebury defeated second-seeded University of Rochester, 10-5, in Friday's second game of the four-team, double-elimination tournament. The winner of the Eastern-Middlebury game moves into the championship round Sunday morning at 11 a.m., needing one victory to advance to next weekend's Super Regional.
 
Trailing 5-2 Friday, the Warriors got one back in the fourth, then put together back-to-back three-run innings on the strength of seven of their game total of 12 hits to move out to a 9-5 lead heading into the late innings. Senior All-America leftfielder John Mesagno's (Tappan, NY) tenth home run of the season – a three-run shot – gave Eastern the lead for good, 6-5, in the fifth inning. An infield throwing error with one out and none on in the sixth set the stage for three more runs in the sixth, all of which scored after there were two out. Senior All-America third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) drove in the first two with his tenth double of the year and senior cleanup hitter Matt Malcom (East Lyme) drove in the third run with a single to center.
 
The victory ends a streak of seven straight NCAA tournament losses for four-time national champion Eastern dating back to 2011. Prior to Friday, the team's last NCAA win had come in an elimination game of the 2011 New York Regional against Clarkson University at Auburn, NY. The win also gives the program at least 40 for the fifth time and is three behind the record established in 2003 and equaled the following year.
 
The seven runs allowed against Swarthmore equal the most given up by Eastern in over two months.
 
Swarthmore wiped out Eastern's early 2-0 lead – courtesy of senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian's (Glastonbury) fourth home run of the year which followed junior shortstop Zach Donahue's (South Windsor) leadoff single – by scoring four runs on four hits in the third against Eastern junior starter Billy Oldham (Brookfield). Making his staff-leading 20^th appearance of the year, senior Bryan Albee (Killingly) kept the Garnet relatively in check by limiting them to two runs on fourth hits over the next four innings to earn his 11^th win of the year without a loss. In his ninth relief appearance of the year, senior lefty Aidan Dunn (Westfield, MA) gained his third save of the year by tossing a scoreless ninth inning.
 
In a game which featured five home runs, Eastern senior DH Jack Rich (Meriden) unloaded his fourth homer of the year leading off the fourth that cut Swarthmore's lead to 5-3.
 
The top five hitters in the Eastern order had ten hits, drove in eight runs and scored eight.
 
Eastern and Middlebury have met only once, the Warriors winning, 14-3, on their Arizona spring trip in 2010. Against Rochester, the Panthers capitalized on four Yellow Jacket errors to score four unearned runs. The tournament appearance is the second overall and first since 2006 for Middlebury.