Box Score

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. –  A wild non-conference baseball game extending for three hours and 23 minutes and featuring 36 different players, 11 pitching changes, 28 hits and 25 stranded baserunners yielded nary a  winner as Eastern Connecticut State University and the University of Hartford played to a 12-12 tie that was stopped by the home plate umpire after the Hawks were retired in order in the bottom of the eighth inning Wednesday afternoon at Fiondella Field.
 
Deliberately preserving their pitching staffs for their respective upcoming conference opponents, Eastern (14-3-1) and Hartford (7-9-1) trotted out a combined total of 13 pitchers, with Eastern starting lefty Joseph Barlovic (Bergenfield, NJ)  the only one to endure as many as two innings on the mound. Barlovic was lifted after three innings with the Warriors in front, 6-3.
 
The Warriors never trailed in the game – leading 6-2 after two and 12-7 after five-and-a-half – but the Hawks avoided what would have been a somewhat meaningless loss by rallying for two runs in the bottom of the sixth and three tying runs in the seventh. The hosts parlayed four of their 19 hits in the seventh into the tying runs against two Eastern pitchers, the first run courtesy of John Russell's sacrifice fly and the final two on Alyis Godbee's first-pitch, two-out, two-run double. The sixth of Eastern's six pitchers, sophomore lefty Noah Fitzgerald (York, ME) kept the game tied, however, by getting Nico DiGioia to ground to junior second baseman Teige Kimbler (Albany, NY) with the go-ahead run on third.
 
Fitzgerald was Eastern's only pitcher to escape without giving up a run. He fanned two without a walk and gave up two hits. No Hartford pitching recorded more than five outs, with starter Mike DeRosa retiring only two batters and leaving on the short end of a 4-0 score.
 
Eastern junior first baseman Ian Moser (Bellingham, MA) drove in three runs with a two-run first-inning single and a HBP in the sixth, with junior shortstop Matthew Carrera (Mount Sinai, NY) and senior catcher Hank Penders (Wethersfield) each plating two. Kimbler and senior centerfielder Danny DiNorcia (Naples, FL) both reached four times with a hit and three walks and both scored two runs. Batting sixth in the order, senior Dylan Jackson (Manchester) scored three times after walking in the first inning, singling in the fifth and getting hit by a pitch in the sixth.
 
After beating VTSU Castleton  in single games and sweeping Plymouth State University in the last ten days in their first four Little East Conference games of the year, the pre-season LEC favorites look to extend their  unbeaten streak in conference play when they visit the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Saturday in a noon doubleheader at the UMD Baseball Field.

Ranked fifth in the LEC pre-season coaches poll, UMass Dartmouth (9-13, 2-2 LEC) opened its conference season March 21 in losing twice at home to the University of Southern Maine but is coming off 19-1, 16-3 seven-inning LEC decisions at Western Connecticut State University this past Sunday.
 
On the final day of last year's regular season, Eastern posted 15-2, 11-6 home victories over the Corsairs.