Mansfield, CT – The Eastern Connecticut Warriors baseball team showed the Plymouth State University boys a new level of pain as they swept the season opening double-header with a 13-5 victory in game one and a 13-2 win in game two at the ECSU baseball complex. PSU falls to 3-9 with these losses combined with the 2-7 mark they brought home from the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic in Ft. Myers, Florida. ECSU moves to 8-6 on the young season, including the pre-season.
Seniors Craig Carpenter, Steve Campo and Josh Labossiere led the Panthers’ offense in the first game that featured a comeback attempt which fell short after the Warriors busted out to a 5-0 lead. Sophomore Joe Brayton took Game One’s loss for the Panthers.
First Team All-American Shawn Gilblair was a mainstay thorn in the side of PSU as he drove in four runs in the opener for ECSU and sophomore Tristan Hobbes also drove in four, including a three-run shot in the second that gave the Warriors a 3-0 lead. Senior lefty Matt Cremins held off PSU into the sixth and earned the opening day win for ECSU.
In Game Two, the Warriors never looked back as they jumped out with 12 runs through the first six innings and the game was later ended by the LEC mercy rule in the seventh inning with a 13-2 ECSU advantage.
Despite the team’s record, there are a couple bright spots for PSU. Steve Campo rounded out his stellar start of the season for PSU, going three for four with an RBI in the nightcap, and Justin Flanagan had a two-hit day with an RBI.
ECSU’s Justin Davis pitched extremely well and second baseman Zach Thomas had three hits and four RBIs as the Warriors won their fourth in a row. The Warriors’ onslaught included contributions from Eric O’Toole, Randy Re and first-year shortstop Melvin Castillo who led all hitters with four hits on the day.
Standish, ME – The Plymouth State University baseball team split a double-header against St. Joseph’s this past Sunday in Standish, Maine while simultaneously stopping a 12-game winning streak for the Monks with a 9-8 victory in the nightcap at Mahaney Diamond.
The Monks recorded a school record for consecutive wins with their victory in the first game and improved to 12-0 this spring with the 11-3 win. PSU fell to 3-10 after a Game One loss that featured a relentless offensive assault by the Monks, who pushed someone across the plate in every inning but the second. The woeful 3-10 start for PSU also included the nine games of the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic played in Ft. Myers, Florida in which the Panthers went 2-7.
St. Joe’s Dustin Spiller went three for three and scored two runs and junior shortstop Luke Enman hit his fourth home run of the season and finished two for five with two RBIs. Captain pitcher Sam Tupper (3-0) went six innings, giving up six hits and striking out two, and was relieved by Craig Woodbrey, who closed the door on the Panthers in Game One.
Game Two was a different story; however, as the bullpen for PSU held tough, snapping St. Joe’s school record 12-game winning streak. Second-year pitcher Adam Neshe and third-year Chip Hale chipped in on the team victory with Neshe (1-1) picking up the win and Hale pitching a rust-free seventh for the save. The offense also exploded in Game Two as Jared LeClaire led off the game with a homerun. The scoring did not stop in the top of the first as junior John Pogorzelski notched a two-out grand slam to push the lead to 5-0. LeClaire then delivered again in the top of the first with a two-run double that gave the Panther’s a 7-0 lead after one inning of play and chased St. Joe’s pitcher Kyle Dorr from the game after 2/3 of an inning.
The resilient St. Joe’s squad did come back to tie the game behind a masterful performance by Andrew Keirstead in relief and Ben Grant-Roy’s two for four, two RBI effort that included his first home run at the college level. The Panthers then pulled away on the back of a Steve Campo’s two-run hit in the fourth and the Neshe-Hale relief tandem to pull off the 9-8 victory.
The Panthers improve to 4-10 with the win and squared off against Little East Conference rival Keene State College on Wednesday. The baseball team will travel to Western Connecticut State University on Saturday afternoon for a 12 P.M. game.