MANSFIELD, Conn – The Castleton University baseball team suffered a Little East Conference (LEC) doubleheader sweep to nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State Saturday afternoon at Eastern Stadium.
Eastern Connecticut State 10, Castleton 0 (seven innings)
The Spartans (9-15, 6-8 LEC) fell behind early in the top half of the first inning, as the Warriors (24-4, 12-1 LEC) took a commanding 5-0 lead and never looked back. The Warriors, who were ranked at No. 21 in the country in the most recent D3Baseball.com poll, tallied four hits during the first inning of play. Richard Walker earned the start on the bump for the Spartans as he pitched four innings before handing the ball off to Zack Marlow in the sixth inning. Walker threw 92 pitches in his four innings of work while striking out one batter. Marlow, who pitched a solid two innings, faced seven batters and only allowed one and one walk. Joseph Voli was the last Spartan pitcher to make an appearance, throwing the final frame while giving up two runs on one hit.
As the Warriors shut down the Spartans with lights out pitching, Armando Cardenas and Adam Newton were the lone Spartans to register a hit. Newton tallied his hit in the sixth inning as he singled to center field, while Cardenas recorded the Spartans' second hit of the game, an infield single to second base.
Cardenas also recorded a stolen base during the game, swiping his team-leading 17th stolen base.
Eastern Connecticut State 8, Castleton 2
Max Olmsted earned the start for the Spartans as the Warriors took an early lead in the top half of the first inning. After registering the first two outs of the inning, Jack Rich blasted a solo home run over the right-field fence, giving the Warriors a 1-0 advantage.
Olmsted finished his outing pitching 5.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits while striking out six batters.
The Spartans took their first lead of the afternoon in the bottom half of the fourth inning as Evan Keegan led off with a single to right field. After back-to-back walks from Newton and Jack Miller, Johnny McComas cracked a single to left field, scoring Keegan to tie the game at one apiece. Jake O'Brien's RBI groundout during the next at-bat gave the Spartans a 2-1 lead as Newton scored from third base.
The Warriors went on to score three runs in both the sixth inning and the seventh inning to take a commanding 7-2 lead. The team also tacked on one more run to solidify the win in the eighth inning.
Castleton returns to action Sunday, May 2, as it hosts Eastern Connecticut State in a non-conference doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
