Box Score
AUBURNDALE, Fla.  – In a game where all 11 runs were scored in the final four innings, the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team erased a three-run deficit in the seventh and a two-run deficit with three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 6-5 walk-off win over Springfield College Monday afternoon at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex.
 
After Springfield (2-7) scored single runs in each of its final three at-bats to take a two-run lead into the bottom of the ninth, Eastern (6-3) got one back on senior Alejandro Soriano's (Hartford) sacrifice fly and with two outs, tied the game on senior Preston [Irby] Cosme-Cruz's (Bridgeport) RBI double and won it on sophomore Ian Moser's (Bellingham, MA) walk-off single to left that scored Cosme-Cruz.
 
Trailing 3-0 in the seventh, Eastern scored the tying runs (all unearned) after there were two out  and a runner on base. With senior Nick Montagna (Carmel, NY) aboard with a pinch single, the Warriors loaded the bases when senior Michael Hernandez (Bridgeport) singled and Soriano was hit by a pitch. An infield error kept the inning alive and accounted for the first run, and Cosme-Cruz's two-run double to center tied the game at 3-3.
 
Senior Hank Penders (Wethersfield), who began the ninth-inning rally with a double down the right field line and scored the first run, had two hits, as did Cosme-Cruz, who drove in three runs.
 
Senior righty Tyler Rice (Berlin), who got the final out of the ninth inning with a strikeout, got the win to even his record at 1-1. Locked in a dual pitting graduate righties,  Eastern's Nathan Furino (East Haven) , carried a shutout into the sixth against Springfield's JP Catellier before the Pride broke the tie with two runs on three hits, a walk, wild pitch and sacrifice fly. The most effective of Eastern's four pitchers, Furino fanned five, walked one and scattered four hits.
 
Furino Named Little East Pitcher-of-the-Week
Furino was named Little East Conference Pitcher-of-the-Week (March 10-16) Monday after pitching a three-hitter and not allowing an earned run over his   seven- inning stint with five strikeouts and two walks in a 7-4 win at Trinity College that gave him his 20^th career pitching victory. Furino pitched a no-hitter thru the first four innings and carried a shutout into the seventh. A second-team All-New England and first-team All-LEC pick in 2024, Furino is 1-0 this year, having appeared in three games with two starts. He has a 5.84 Era in 12 1/3 innings with 11 strikeouts and six walks and has allowed only two extra-base hits.