Just Call ECSU Baseball 'Champions'

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ECSU

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Last weekend, 19 players from Eastern Connecticut State University's 2002 NCAA national championship team gathered in North Windham to celebrate and revive old memories during a 20th anniversary celebration of the most recent of the program's four national titles.

Also this past weekend, 25 players from the current team assembled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, intent on creating new memories at the 2022 NCAA Division III national tournament.

Mission accomplished.

Twenty years and 10 days after hoisting their fourth national championship trophy at Grand Chute, Wisc., the Warriors raised a fifth – each coming at a different site – with a clean sweep at Perfect Game Field – and ended the season by tying the program record of 23 consecutive victories.

After winning its bracket with three straight wins here, No. 1 nationally-ranked and second-seeded Eastern (49-3) swept 2021 national titlist Salisbury University, 11-6 and 3-2 in the best-of-three championship series Tuesday for its 14th and 15th straight victories in conference and NCAA tournament play.

With six seniors and two graduate players among its nine starting position players, Eastern trailed only twice (by one run both times) in the tournament, the second time coming in the second game against Salisbury, when a three-run fifth inning wiped out that deficit and sent the team, ultimately, to the title.

The Warriors set program records for wins and winning percentage (.942) in claiming the title in only the third non-Covid season under fourth-year head coach Brian Hamm.

Throughout the year, Eastern was driven by last year's disappointment in losing the deciding game of the Little East Conference tournament at home on a walk-off home run, then exiting the Auburn, NY Regional tournament with two quick losses.

"It's something that we worked really, really hard for," noted Hamm of the championship. "We're really proud to represent the university and get one for all of the people back home," added Hamm, who, during the season, won his 100th game at Eastern and his 300th in 13 years as a college head coach.

After winning the first game Tuesday, only the team's first two-game losing streak of the year would deny it a fifth national title in six championship series appearances.

Salisbury (39-12), whose three bracket wins included an 11-inning victory over six-time national champion Marietta College Saturday, ended its season on a two-game losing streak – its longest since late February.

In the first win over Salisbury, Eastern rode senior righty Bryan Albee's (Killingly) 12th win of the year without a loss (the most wins by a pitcher without a loss in program history) and a three-run seventh and two-run eighth to move to within a victory of the title.

In that first game, graduate first baseman Josh Tower (Auburn, Mass.) — voted the tournament's Most Outstanding Player — tied the national tournament record with five hits and also drove in four runs when he singled and scored in the second and fourth innings, drove in a run in the fifth, doubled home two runs and scored in the seventh and singled home two more in the eighth.

A sure-handed first baseman, Tower had struggled in his previous eight tournament games at bat prior to the nationals (5-for-31), but opened the nationals with two hits and two RBI against Baldwin Wallace and added seven hits over the final three games.

In the final, junior righty Billy Oldham (Brookfield) and graduate righty Tommy Benincaso (Norwalk) combined on a six-hitter and senior centerfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury) drove in two runs with a two-out single when the Warriors scored all three of their runs in the third that wiped out Salisbury's 1-0 lead and gave Eastern its fifth one-run victory without a loss in conference and NCAA tournament play.

As he did in an opening win over Baldwin Wallace University Friday, Oldham pitched 6 1/3 innings against Salisbury on three full days' rest, allowing one run on four hits and four walks, with six strikeouts.

Oldham struggled until finding his groove in the fourth — when he didn't allow a hit over the next three innings — until giving way to Benincaso with one on and one out in the seventh.

"It was a rough first few innings but I was able to settle in," said Oldham, now 18-3 lifetime. "I didn't have a lot of off-speed pitches going today, it was a lot of fastballs and a lot of quick outs. When I don't have my put-away pitches, my off-speed stuff, I rely on my [near-perfect] defense to get me through the innings where I struggled."

In the game, Oldham threw 72 of his 115 pitches for strikes, Benincaso 21 of 34.

The championship series pitted teams with the top two (Eastern as No. 1) earned run averages in the country, but Eastern collected 25 hits (five of them doubles) off eight Salisbury pitchers in two games.

Eastern was limited to seven hits in the final game but finally knocked out previously unbeaten starter Benji Thalheimer (7-1) in the seventh, grouping four of their hits off Thalheime in its three-run fifth.

In the two-game set Tuesday, Eastern's five pitchers struck out 17 and walked five, allowed 19 hits but stranded 19 baserunners.

On Tuesday, Tower reached seven times with six hits and a walk, drove in five runs and scored four and senior DH Jack Rich (Meriden) contributed five hits (two doubles) and scored four runs and junior shortstop and leadoff hitter Zach Donahue (South Windsor) and Bagdasarian each had three RBI.

Senior second baseman Noah Plantamuro (Bristol), whose assist ended both the Super Regional sweep of Rowan University and Tuesday's national championship game, had two sacrifice bunts and a total of four in the Warriors' five national tournament games.

In the nationals, Eastern batted .322 and neither had or gave up a home run.

The pitching staff showed a 3.00 ERA, with Oldham winning both of his starts, Beninicaso winning his start and saving the national championship game with 2 2/3 innings of shutout relief in place of Oldham, striking out the first two batters of the ninth before getting No. 9 hitter Luke Weddell on a game-ending ground ball to Plantamuro on a 3-2 pitch.

Oldham struck out 16 in 12 2/3 tournament innings while graduate righty Jack Wallace (Winthrop, Mass.) pitched brilliantly in two relief appearances (winning one) without allowing a hit or walk and striking out four.

One of six undefeated pitchers on the staff, Benincaso fanned 12 and walked only one in 9 1/3 innings, starting one game and relieving in another.

In the tournament, Rich and Tower both had nine hits, scored six runs and batted .474, with Tower driving in a team-high eight runs.

Sophomore rightfielder Jason Claiborn (Prospect), worthy of all-tournament mention and the only non-senior or graduate student in the starting lineup, was 6-for-17 (.353), reached base 10 times with six hits and four walks, drove in six runs and scored three batting ninth in the order.

He also had 10 putouts in the outfield. In the first game Tuesday, he collected his 100th career hit — a single through the right side that sent home Tower from third with the third run of the seventh inning.

Donahue batted .333 (7-for-21) in the nationals and in 10 NCAA games, was flawless at shortstop on 36 chances, 28 of which were assists.

With only one error in the nationals and just five in 10 NCAA tournament games, Eastern broke last year's program record with a fielding percentage of .973.

In addition to winning titles at Grand Chute and Cedar Rapids, Eastern has been crowned champion at Marietta, Ohio, (1982), Battle Creek, Mich., (1990) and Salem, Va. (1998).