Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Eastern Connecticut State University senior leadoff hitter Ray Leonzi (Trumbull) continued a remarkable individual season, pushing his batting average over .400 and his on-base percentage over .500  in leading the Warriors to a 15-10 non-conference baseball win over WPI Thursday evening at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.

After returning home for the first time in 11 days -- where it won five of six road games over eight days  -- Eastern (23-8) won for the 16^th time in its last 20 games.

In a game that was at once  not as close and yet closer than the final score would indicate, Eastern broke a 5-5 tie by scoring nine times in the seventh inning on just three hits (helped immensely  by six walks and three errors  to take a 14-5, then promptly giving five of them back in the ninth. Two errors opened that WPI ninth (13-20) and with two out, a single, four straight walks and a hit-by-pitch to the next six batters had the tying run on deck before senior righty Tiernan Powers (Haddam Neck) ended the suspense and the game by inducing No. 3 hitter Tommy Burns to fly to Leonzi in medium-deep center field.

Leonzi reached base five times for the fourth time this season and scored four runs for the third time (in the last ten games). He singled in his first two bats, and walked and scored in his final three plate appearances. Leonzi also stole two bases – his 16^th and 17^th of the season in 19 tries – and had three putouts to remain perfect on 65 chances in the field this year. The lefty-hitting centerfielder is batting .406 with a .509 on-base percentage and, with nine home runs and 19 extra-base hits, shows a team-leading .711 slugging percentage.

Remarkably, the Engineers out-hit the Warriors by one, but Eastern's five extra-base hits among its 11 hits were the difference: Senior DH Hank Penders (Wethersfield) tripled in the first run and scored the second in the first inning while senior third baseman Emmanuel Zaiter (Miami) tripled leading off the second inning and rode home on sophomore first baseman Ian Moser's (Bellingham) sixth home run of the year to give Eastern a 4-2 lead in the second.

The three-hour game included 16 walks, two hit batters and six errors, with 14 of the batters who reached base via walk, hit-by-pitch or error  eventually scored.

While the Warriors managed only three hits in their nine-run seventh, three came across the plate on senior shortstop and No. 3 hitter Preston [Irby] Cosme-Cruz' (Bridgeport) three-run blast to left-center that accounted for the first three runs of the inning. Cosme-Cruz drove in his fourth run with a bases-leaded walk in the nine-run seventh.

With a pair of singles (and a sacrifice fly), senior leftfielder and cleanup hitter Alejandro Soriano (Hartford) reached safely for the 31^st straight time in 31 games (former All-America shortstop Joe Funaro ended his career in 1995 by reaching base for the 50^th consecutive game). Soriano drove in two runs and scored one and upped his team-leading batting average to .414. Moser scored three runs and drove in three with his two-run home run and seventh-inning infield ground ball.

In his second start, senior righty Mike Furgalack (Southington) was dominant on the mound as the second of five Eastern pitchers, allowing only one hit and two walks while fanning five over three innings to win his third game in his third decision and lowering his ERA to 2.35. Furgalack struck out the side in the sixth and punched out two more in the seventh.

Eastern (9-2 LEC) visits the University of Massachusetts Boston (21-12, 9-4 LEC) Sunday in a noon Little East Conference doubleheader before meeting No. 3 nationally-ranked Endicott College Monday at 4 p.m. on the road in a battle of New England's top-ranked teams. Eastern returns home to host Western Connecticut State University Tuesday at 4 p.m. in a conference game.