BOSTON - Three teams remain in the hunt for the 2024 Little East Conference (LEC) Baseball Championship Tournament title following the third day of competition at UMass Boston’s Monan Park Thursday. UMass Dartmouth went 2-0 on the day to advance to the championship round, and will face the either the host Beacons or two-time defending LEC champion Eastern Connecticut.

No. 3 UMass Dartmouth 4, No. 3 Eastern Connecticut 0 - Box Score 
By UMass Dartmouth Athletics

Powered by a phenomenal three-hit shutout from grad student pitcher Anthony Keefe, the UMass Dartmouth baseball team defeated Eastern Connecticut, 4-0 on Friday. The Corsairs move on to face top-seeded UMass Boston this afternoon, while the Warriors will wait to face Keene State in the nightcap.
 
The contest started as a pitching showcase from both sides, with no runs coming in through the first six innings of action. Anthony Keefe was outstanding, allowing shutting out the Warriors on just three hits with three strikeouts and only one walk. He had arguably his best showing on the mound this year, in the biggest game of the season thus far.

The Corsairs struck first in the seventh inning with an electric four runs to take a 4-0 advantage. With one out in the inning, freshman infielder Nick Bartalini pinch ran and used his speed to impact the game. Bartalini advanced all the way to third on a wild pitch, then scored on a pass ball. Junior first baseman Jake SanAntonio kept the momentum going with a double off the left center field wall. A base hit from senior catcher T.J. Keefe followed by a bunt-single from junior right fielder Scott Cromack to load up the bases.

With the bases loaded and one out, freshman shortstop Cooper Wixon brought in a run with a sac fly to left field that allowed all three baserunners to tag up and advance. With two outs and runners on second and third, sophomore center fielder Brett Baker took a walk, loading the bases for junior second baseman Devyn Vezina. Vezina's first hit of the day was a huge one, with a two-RBI base hit to right field. The Corsairs led 4-0 after seven innings of play.

Anthony Keefe continued to dominate on the mound to close out the game, retiring six of the last seven ECSU batters. The Corsairs took the 4-0 victory and move on to the winners bracket final against UMass Boston.

From the plate, UMass Dartmouth was led by T.J. Keefe, who went 2-for-4 and scored a run. Vezina went 1-for-4 with two RBIs, while Cromack went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
Warriors' junior pitcher Matthew Wootton shouldered the loss. He allowed four runs (three earned) on nine hits with five strikeouts over 6.2 innings of work. From the plate, Eastern saw senior first baseman Ryan Parent record two of their three hits, with the other coming from senior third baseman Tiernan Lynch.

No. 3 UMass Dartmouth 12, No. 1 UMass Boston 1 - Box Score
By UMass Dartmouth Athletics

Powered by another phenomenal pitching performance for the Corsairs, this time by senior Ryan Qualey, the UMass Dartmouth Baseball team upset the top-seed and host team UMass Boston, 12-1 on Friday. The Corsairs advance to the Championship Round of the Little East Conference Tournament on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Beacons will play the winner of tonight's Eastern Connecticut and Keene State game.  

The Corsairs led 1-0 through a quiet first four innings of play. UMass Dartmouth came up to bat in the top of the fifth inning and rallied for five runs to extend their lead to 6-0. Junior second baseman Devyn Vezina got things going in the inning with a one-out walk. After stealing second, Vezina advanced to third on a single from grad student first baseman Joe Muzio and then scoring on a fielding error on senior third baseman Andrew Possi's contact. Senior DH Jared Neikam followed him up with an RBI-single.

Freshman Nick Bartalini came in as a pinch runner for Neikam, stealing second base to set up runners on second and third with one out for senior catcher Matt Tempone. Tempone blasted a two-run double to left field and eventually scored himself on a two-out RBI-single from senior left fielder Matt Klett. The Corsairs led 6-0 through five innings.

Qualey continued his dominance on the mound to hold off any kind of comeback for the Beacons. In 8.0 innings of work, Qualey allowed just one run on four hits with four strikeouts. The star pitcher from the earlier game today, grad student Anthony Keefe, helped him out with a two-out, three-run homerun in the top of the seventh to put UMD up by a 9-0 margin.

UMD kept their foot on the pedal offensively, adding another three runs in the top of the eighth inning to go up 12-0. UMass Boston was able to erase the shutout in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single from junior outfielder Mariano Jimenez, marking the very first run scored against the Corsairs in the Conference Tournament so far. Qualey finished the game in just eight innings due to the run rule coming into effect, as the Corsairs took the 12-1 victory over the top-seeded Beacons.

From the plate, UMass Dartmouth was led by Klett, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and scored a run. Anthony Keefe, after putting on a lights-out performance from the mound in the earlier game, was spectacular from the plate in this one. He went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored, including the three-run homer in the seventh. Neikam, Muzio, and sophomore center fielder Brett Baker each recorded a pair of hits, with Muzio and Baker each batting in a run.   

Beacons' grad student pitcher Max Moss shouldered the loss. He allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits over 4.1 innings of work. From the plate, UMass Boston saw Jimenez record two of their four hits with an RBI. The other base hits came from freshman DH Gaer and freshman shortstop Elliot Miles.

No. 3 Eastern Connecticut 8, No. 5 Keene State 2 - Box Score
By Eastern Connecticut Athletics

It's difficult to beat a team three times in one season. Just ask the second-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team, which, unable to do that against third-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Friday in the second round of the 2024 Little East Conference baseball tournament, dropped into an elimination game.

It's even more difficult to beat a team four times in a season, which the Warriors were able to do several hours later against fifth-seeded Keene State College at Monan Park. And because of that, the Warriors remained alive heading into the fourth day of the tournament in their quest to become only the second team (following UMass Boston from 2017-19) to capture three consecutive championships.

After sitting idle Thursday (due to rain) following an opening 8-5 win over Keene State Wednesday, Eastern (29-12) absorbed its first tournament shutout in 44 games – dating back to the final game in 2012 – when sophomore righty Anthony Keefe spun a dominant three-hit 4-0 shutout on Friday as UMass Dartmouth (23-18-1) avenged to a degree two home losses to Eastern on the final weekend of the regular-season which cost the Corsairs not only their first LEC regular-season title, but more importantly, a chance to host the tournament for the first time.

On Friday night, graduate righty Nathan Furino (East Haven) matched the pitching domination of Keefe earlier in the day when he recorded his 19^th career win with a masterful five-hitter – one of the most efficient post-season complete games in program history – that kept the team alive in the losers' bracket. For Eastern to record its 12^th LEC tournament championship – the most by any institution – the win over Keene State would need to be the first of four in a span of three days.

The team's fourth win this year and second in the tournament over Keene guarantees the Warriors a date with top-seeded host University of Massachusetts Boston (26-14) Saturday at noon. That winner needs to beat UMass Dartmouth (3-0 in the tournament) – the only remaining unbeaten -- twice to prevent the Corsairs from winning their first title. The first game of the championship round is set for Saturday at 3:30. If needed, one game for the title will be played Sunday at noon, with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, which gets underway Friday, May 17.

Following a layoff of nearly three weeks between starts, Furino (7-0) was brilliant Friday in his first start since throwing a nine-inning no-hitter April 16 against Western Connecticut State University at the Eastern Baseball Stadium – his fourth career win in the LEC tournament against just one loss.  In his 118-pitch effort, Furino fanned nine without walking a batter, facing only seven batters over the minimum and shutting out Keene over the final eight innings. After retiring Evan Cali for the final out of the second inning, Furino faced 24 consecutive batters without allowing a ball out of the infield until No. 3 hitter Jonathan Chatfield singled up the middle with two out in the eighth.

In view of the long layoff between starts, Furino struggled (only) in the first inning, when the Owls scored their only runs by collecting three of their five hits, with Brendan Eaton's two-out opposite field double down the right field line giving his team a short-lived 2-1 lead.

Despite facing a stacked lineup of five left-handed hitters, the right-handed Furino was in total control, limiting the lefties to 3-for-19 at the plate, preventing lefties cleanup hitter Otis Follet, No. 6 hitter George Young and No. 8 hitter Ethan Rainha from getting the ball out of the infield in a combined 0-for-11 evening.
 
Trailing 2-1, the Warriors batted around in the third inning against starting junior righty Shea Zina (3-4), scoring six runs on four hits, a hit batter, with two wild pitches scoring runs. Senior leadoff hitter Zach Donahue (South Windsor), who had a 33-game on-base streak snapped earlier in the day, opened the inning with a ground rule double that hopped the right field fence on one hop. Senior Josh Cofrancesco (Southington), making his first start of the year in center field due to the absence of junior Ray Leonzi (Trumbull), followed Donahue with a single, and No. 3 hitter, senior first baseman Ryan Parent (Southington) tied the game, 2-2, with a ground single up the middle that sent in Donahue. With one out, junior catcher Hank Penders (Wethersfield) walked and senior left fielder Mason Balmer's (North Haven) single to left with the bases loaded gave the Warriors the lead for good, 3-2. Another run was forced in when senior second baseman Preston Irby (Bridgeport) was hit by a pitch, and senior third baseman Tiernan Lynch's (Easton) infield ground ball and a wild pitch closed out the scoring.

Batting cleanup in his first start against Keene, first-year DH Ian Moser (Bellingham, MA) had two hits, as did Balmer, who drove in a second run in the fifth when his fly ball was lost in the lights for a triple that plated Moser. Penders reached three times with a first-inning single and two walks.

Thirteen of Furino's 27 outs came on ground balls, with Tiernan collecting six assists and Parent chalking up 13 putouts.