Eastern baseball, softball advance in tourneys
May 23—The Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team walked it off in the final of the NCAA Division III Rochester (New York) Regional final Sunday to set up its next step in what it hopes is a run to the national championship.
Ryan Bagdasarian of Glastonbury hit a game-tying two-run homer and Matt Malcom followed two batters later with an RBI double to cap the three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning as the top-ranked Warriors topped Middlebury 5-4 for their first regional title since 2007.
Eastern (42-3) has won 16 straight and 30 of its last 31. The Warriors will face No. 10 and Annville (Pennsylvania) representative Rowan University (33-8) in the best-of-three Super Regional Friday and Saturday.
Middlebury was one strike away from forcing a winner-take-all game for the regional title, leading 4-2 with two outs in the ninth. But Zach Donahue of South Windsor kept Eastern alive with a double on a 2-2 pitch. Bagdasarian — who was only 2-for-13 in the tournament — followed by driving a 1-1 pitch over the left-center field fence for his fifth home run of the season to get Eastern even.
Luke Broadhurst of Stafford then greeted reliever George Goldstein with a first-pitch single. Running on a 3-2 pitch with two outs, Broadhurst came all the way around to score when Malcom doubled into left-center field.
Jack Wallace was the winning pitcher.
Bagdasarian was named the tournament's MVP and was joined on the 10-man all-regional team by teammates Malcom, Broadhurst and John Mesagno.
ECSU SOFTBALL. Alexis Michon pitched a three-hitter and No. 3 Eastern Connecticut State scored three runs in the first inning en route to a 4-0 win over Randolph-Macon College Saturday to sweep the best-of-three NCAA Division III Mansfield Super Regional.
The Warriors (43-5) have won 27 of their last 28 and begin play in the eight-team, double-elimination national tournament in Salem, Virginia Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against Trine University, located in Angola, Indiana.
Brooke Matyasovsky's two-run homer gave Eastern the early lead and Michon's RBI single made it 3-0. Carley Stoker's successful suicide-squeeze bunt in the sixth accounted for the final run.
The national tournament appearance for the five-time national champion Warriors will be the fourth in the last 13 years under 21st-year coach Diana Pepin.
UCONN BASEBALL. Georgetown pushed across a run in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday to defeat UConn 6-5 and complete a three-game sweep of the Big East regular-season champion Huskies.
UConn (43-13) will begin postseason play on Thursday in the Big East tournament being held in Mason, Ohio. The top-seeded Huskies will take on No. 4 Georgetown at 2:30 p.m. Second-seeded Creighton and No. 3 Xavier will play the second game of the day.
The double-elimination event continues through Sunday with the champion receiving the Big East's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
CCSU BASEBALL. Elliot Good's RBI single scored Kyle Gordon with the tie-breaking run in the bottom of the eighth inning as Central Connecticut State edged Merrimack 6-5 in a Northeast Conference game in New Britain Saturday.
Hunter Pasqualini of South Windsor had two hits for the Blue Devils (28-16, 17-10). Starting pitcher Anthony Mozzicato of Ellington went five innings and allowed four hits and two unearned runs to lower his ERA to 2.94. He struck out two.
Central will be the No. 3 seed for the NEC tournament being played at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, The Blue Devils will open play in the double-elimination event Thursday at 4 p.m. against second-seeded Bryant. The tournament champion receives the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
