Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
HARTFORD, Conn. – With a stable of starters on last year's Eastern Connecticut State University baseball roster, first-year righty Stephen Rickert (Williston, VT) was asked to work exclusively out of the bullpen during his first season last year, where he excelled with a 1.86 ERA in 13 appearances.
 
With those five starters no longer with the team in 2026, the former high school league Pitcher-of-the-Year was moved into the starting rotation as the team's opening-day sophomore starter a month ago, and the results have been just as effective.
 
In his fifth career start in the first game of a Little East Conference doubleheader with Plymouth State University Saturday at Dunkin Park, Rickert (4-0) lowered his career ERA to 1.81 by stopping the Panthers (1-9, 0-2 LEC) on four hits and one run through his seven-inning stint in a 9-2 victory.
 
After scoring five runs in the ninth inning to finally pull away from Plymouth in the first game and keep Rickert unbeaten this year, Eastern (13-3, 4-0 LEC) used an eight-run third inning and collected 18 hits off four Plymouth pitchers for a 16-1, seven-inning victory in Gamse 2 that gives Eastern 11 wins in its last 12 games.
 
The sweep improves Eastern's all-time record against Plymouth to 90-19 and extends its current win streak against the Panthers to 11.
 
Eastern visits Wesleyan University (currently 4-11) in a non-conference game Tuesday at Dresser Diamond before returning to conference play next Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (currently 7-13 overall, 0-2 in the LEC).
 
Eastern Conn. 9, Plymouth State U. 2
 
Rickert closed out the game with five scoreless innings after allowing a run in the second inning on two infield hits ,a walk and sacrifice fly. He struck out five and walked four in a 102-pitch performance. This year, Rickert has a 1.78 ERA in a staff-high 30 1/3 innings with 26 strikeouts and seven walks.
 
The top five hitters in the Eastern lineup combined for nine of the team's 13 hits, six runs scored and six RBI. Matthew Carrera (Mount Sinai, NY), Hank Penders (Wethersfield), Danny DiNorcia (Naple, FL), Teige Kimbler (Albany, NY) and Cameron Forte (Easton) all had two hits, with DiNorcia and Kimbler doubling and No. 3 hitter Lucas Malave (Toms River, NJ) tripling. Penders and DiNorica both reached four times with two hits and two walks.
 
Sebastien Dostal (Londonderry, NH) pitched a hitless ninth to keep his ERA at 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings.
 
Eastern Conn. 16, Plymouth State U. 1 (7 inn.)
 
The Warriors reached double-digit runs for the sixth time this year on the way to a season-high run total.
 
Lefty Jake Shaughnessy (Franklin, MA) gained his second win in as many career decisions with a two-hitter and four strikeouts over the first four innings.
 
Leading 3-0 after two innings, the Warriors chased Plymouth starter Ross Tine (1-1) in the third by scoring eight runs on five hits, with the first eight batters reaching safely. The big blows were delivered by Ian Moser (Bellingham, MA), who belted a grand slam, and Penders, who tripled in two more runs.
 
Penders was 4-for-7 on the day to maintain the team batting lead at .433, while Moser was 4-for-8 to push his average to .407 – second only to Penders.
 
Six players contributed at least two hits with Moser going 3-for-5 with five RBI and two runs, and Penders 2-for-3 with three RBI and a run scored. First-year player Kieran Scruggs (Fairfield) recorded his first career hit and RBI with a run-scoring infield single in Eastern's four-run seventh inning.
 
Lefty Noah Fitzgerald (York, ME) struck out two in a scoreless seventh inning to lower his ERA to 1.23 in 7 1/3 innings.