Little East Conference Tournament - Game Seven

Southern Maine Rolls Past Eastern Connecticut 22-9

            GORHAM, Maine -- The top-seeded University of Southern Maine Huskies pounded out 25 hits en route to a 22-9 victory over the second-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors Friday afternoon in Game Seven of the Little East Conference Championship Tournament being played at the USM Baseball Stadium.

            The win moves the Huskies into the championship round of the tournament against an opponent to be determined.  Eastern Connecticut moves into Game Nine against the winner of the game between UMass Dartmouth and UMass Boston.  The UMD-UMB game was halted in the eighth inning due to darkness and will be resumed at 9:00 a.m.

            Junior Forrest Chadwick (Gardiner, Maine) led the Huskies' hit parade going 5 for 5 with four runs scored.  Senior Nick Grady (Whitefield, Maine) was 4 for 4 with five RBI.  Senior Tucker White (Deerfield, N.H./Coe-Brown Northwood) was 3 for 4, including his ninth home run of the season, and three RBI. Every starter in the USM lineup had at least one hit.

            Freshman right-hander Shyler Scates (Jefferson, Maine/Erskine Academy) was the beneficiary Huskies offensive outburst.  Scates went five innings allowing two hits while striking out two to pick up his fifth win of the season.  Five relievers combined to pitch the final four innings.

            Junior Mike Vaccarelli (Wolcott, Conn.) led the Warriors offensive going 3 for 5 with two RBI.  Sophomore Cory DeMedeiros (Fall River, Mass.) was 2 for 3 with an RBI.

            Eastern starting pitcher sophomore Brent Pelella (Southbury, Conn.) did not get out of the first inning as the Huskies scored six times.  Pelella took the loss and drops to 3-2 on the season.

            Southern Maine sent 11 men to the plate in the first inning highlighted by junior Chris Bernard's (Scarborough, Maine) two-run double.  USM's first five batters reached base against Pelella before Bernard greeted senior reliever Andrew Merritt (Norwalk, Conn.) by lashing his double down the left field line.

            USM tacked on three more runs in the second, benefitting from two ECSU errors, and another three in the third to increase its lead to 12-0.  Grady highlighted the third inning with a two-run triple.

            The Huskies lead continued to expand, reaching 22-0 after seven innings.  White hit a three-run homer as part of a five run fifth inning.  Sophomore Jake Glauser (Goffstown, N.H.) had a three-run double in the Huskies' four-run sixth inning.

            Eastern Connecticut finally broke through against junior reliever Luke Hammond (Rangeley, Maine) for five runs in the eighth inning.  Vaccarelli had an RBI single during the inning.

            The Warriors added four more runs in the ninth to close the final margin.  DeMedeiros had an RBI single and Vaccarelli had an RBI double during the inning.