Eastern Connecticut rolls into Division III championship series
Top-seeded Eastern Connecticut’s baseball team has pursued a championship with a vengeance, and the goal is in sight after its 8-1 victory over Lagrange on Monday at the Division III World Series at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Eastern, on a 21-game winning streak, advances to play defending national champ Salisbury in a best-of-three series starting Tuesday.
“Sounds great,” Eastern coach Brian Hamm told reporters after the game. “... We have guys with all different experiences they have brought to this team, and we’ve found a way to meld it together. Now we’ve got the No. 1 team in the country playing against the returning national champions, so that’s a pretty good set-up for a championship final.”
The Warriors (47-3) will be trying for the school’s fifth national title, but first since 2002. Eastern won championships in 1982, ‘90, ‘98 and 2002 under Bill Holowaty. Trinity is the last Connecticut team to win it, in 2008.
Luke Broadhurst, from Stafford High, hitting .414 for the season, got Eastern started Monday with an RBI double in the first inning. Zach Donahue singled to drive* in one, and John Mesagno singled to drive in two in the second inning, giving Eastern a 4-0 lead. The Warriors put it away with three runs in the fourth inning.
On the mound, Aidan Dunn, Jack Wallace, Griffin Pontbriant and Nolan Lincoln combined to hold Lagrange to eight hits and one run.
Eastern was eliminated by SUNY Cortland in the regionals last year and carried that as fuel into this season.
“Its been our goal since the day Cortland beat us that year,” Mesagno said. “It’s been the goal ever since then. We wanted to bring back the core from last year. We knew we had some unfinished business. We’ve just been working toward that.”
Said Broadhurst: “The way things ended last year, it just brought so much more fire and momentum into this season. We knew we could do it. We weren’t just coming here just to be here. We want to win it all.”
Eastern, which hasn’t lost since April 23, swept the Little East Tournament, the NCAA regional and Super Regional to make it to Cedar Rapids, and outscored its World Series opponents 22-7 in three games, its pitchers walking only four, its fielders playing errorless ball. The Warriors open the championship series with Salisbury (39-10) on Tuesday at noon.