Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Six starters collected at least two hits in a 17-hit attack as the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team eased to a 17-0, seven-inning Little East Conference win over Western Connecticut State University Tuesday afternoon.

While the win stopped a three-game losing streak for Eastern (24-11, 10-4 LEC), it was not enough to prevent Keene State College from moving closer to capturing its first LEC regular-season title and No. 1 seed in 17 years.

Despite losing twice to Eastern this year, Keene (19-14, 11-3 LEC) lost only one other LEC game, and used sweeps of the University of Massachusetts Boston and defending tournament champion University of Massachusetts Dartmouth to move within striking distance of the regular-season title. Keene downed VTSU Castleton, 9-4, Tuesday and can guarantee itself the No. 1 seed with two wins Friday at Plymouth State University (3-11 LEC).

UMass Boston completed its LEC season with a 12-4 record, sweeping the Warriors Sunday at Monan Park in a key matchup.

Two Eastern wins Friday at home against the UMass Dartmouth at noon, coupled with a Keene split against Plymouth Friday, would leave Eastern, Keene and UMass Boston all with final 12-4 LEC records and sharing the regular-season title, with tie-breakers necessary to decide the No. 1 seed and host for the double-elimination tournament schedule  May 7-10.

Against WestConn (8-24, 1-13 LEC), first-year lefty Jake Shaughnessy (Franklin, MA) was sharp in winning his varsity debut. Shaughnessy allowed only a leadoff single in the third over his four-inning stint, fanning five (including all three in the first inning) and walking two and departing with a 5-0 lead. Junior lefty AJ Rooks (Coventry) pitched two hitless innings in relief of Shaughnessy, with senior righty Sean Wininger (Bristol) tossing a scoreless seventh in his third appearance of the season, giving up WestConn's second hit.

Eastern totalled 17 hits off four WestConn pitchers, seven of them for extra bases.  Senior shortstop Preston [Irby] Cosme-Cruz (Bridgeport) swatted his fifth home run of the season -- a two-run blast in the fifth on the first pitch he saw from reliever Trey Lindsey --and first-year infielder Cameron Forte (Easton) added his second home run of the season as a late-inning replacement at shortstop – a three-run drive as the first batter faced by Luke Pliego.

Senior leftfelder Alejandro Soriano (Hartford) extended his on-base streak to 37 (13 shy of the record) over two seasons with a seeing-eye ground ball to the right side of the infield in Eastern's seven-run sixth inning.

Senior third baseman Emmanuel Zaiter (Miami) doubled in two runs and scored in the third and tripled in another run and scored in the fourth. First-year catcher Sean Fallon (Bethel)  reached four times with an RBI double, two singles and a walk, while sophomore utility player Ian Moser (Bellingham, MA) reached four times with three walks and an RBI double and scored twice. Senior leadoff hitter Ray Leonzi (Trumbull), senior DH Hank Penders (Wethersfield), Cosme-Cruz, Soriano and Zaiter all had two hits.