Montclair, NJ – The Montclair State baseball team grabbed a quick two-run lead in the first inning however from that point on it was all Eastern Connecticut the rest of the way as the Warriors posted a 9-2 win over the Red Hawks at Yogi Berra Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

Sophomore first baseman Andrew Scully (Stratford, CT / Frank Bunnell) had two hits and two RBI while Brendan Lynch (Wethersfield, CT / Wethersfield) and Nik Veveris (Plainfield, CT / Plainfield) each had two hits and a run batted in for the Warriors (8-4).

Freshman rightfielder Ryan Long (Washington Township, NJ, Washington Township) went 3-for-4 with a run scored for Montclair State, which dropped to 5-8 with its second straight loss.

After ECSU went down in order in the top of the first, the Red Hawks quickly put runs on the board. Long led off with a double down the left field line and senior shortstop Cody Pace (Milltown, NJ, Spotswood) lofted a one-out sacrifice fly bringing in Long with the first run. Christopher Reynolds (Randolph, NJ, Randolph) restarted things for MSU with a base hit and an error on a grounder by Nicholas Martins (Linden, NJ, Linden) allowed the innings to continue which then produced another run when Reynolds scored from third on a balk. Montclair State nearly added to the lead however second baseman Corey Keane (Tolland, CT / Tolland) made a leaping snare of a line drive by Jayson Stolz (Iselin, NJ, John F. Kennedy) to end the inning.

The Warriors got a run back in the top of the second as Scully singled home Gavin Lavallee (New Milford, CT / New Milford) with two outs. Eastern then took the lead with a three-run fourth inning. Lavallee scored from third on an error and Veveris singled in a run to put ECSU up 3-2 before Mike Vacarelli (Wolcott, CT / Wolcott) capped the inning with RBI base hit for a two-run lead.

Eastern Connecticut widened its lead in the fifth with four-run for an 8-2 advantage. The Warriors stole three bases in the inning and capitalized on a wild pitch that scored one run and an error that plated another. Lynch had an RBI single in the inning.  Scully's RBI single in the sixth completed the scoring the game.

Junior righthander Brent Pelella (Southbury, CT / Pomperaug) settled down after the first inning with five shutout frames to earn his third win of the season. Pelella (3-1) allowed seven hits, struck out three and walked one. Patrick O'Neill (Thomaston, CT / Thomaston), Matt D'Orsi (West Hartford, CT / Northwest Catholic) and Luis Vega (Willimantic, CT / Windham) finished up with a scoreless inning each.

Freshman righthander Connor Lindsay (New Egypt, NJ, New Egypt) took the loss for Montclair State falling to 0-2.

Montclair State returns to action on Thursday, April 3 as the Red Hawks host third-ranked Kean University at 3:30 pm. It will be the first NJAC contest for Montclair, which had its original conference opener rained out over the weekend.