MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Wheaton College (Mass.) baseball team was defeated by No. 3 Eastern Connecticut State University, 13-1, this afternoon at Eastern Baseball Stadium in Willimantic, Conn. The Lyons' four-game win streak comes to an end as they fall to 6-6 on the season. The Warriors, who are ranked nationally in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association/D3baseball.com Coaches Poll, improve to 13-2.

Senior catcher Zach DeMattio (North Attleboro, Mass.) finished the day going 1-3 with a walk and a run batted in, while sophomore center fielder AJ Guindon (Coventry, R.I.) was 1-3 with a walk and a double. Senior right fielder Jake Studley (Barrington, R.I.) also reached base twice with single and a walk in four plate appearances. Senior starting right-hander Zach Begin (Georgetown, Mass.) took the loss to fall to 0-1 after allowing five runs on five hits, while striking out two.

Eastern Connecticut rapped out eight extra-base hits and senior third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford) hit his third home run of the season, en route to a three-RBI after going 3-4, while senior designated hitter Jack Rich (Meriden) hit his first long ball of the year as part of a two-RBI day in the win. 

Senior outfielder Ryan Bagdasarian (Glastonbury, Conn.) helped get the scoring started early for the Warriors with a one-out triple, before a Broadhurst single in the next at-bat plated him, making it 1-0. Rich would later deliver a big blow against Wheaton with a towering home run to right field to put Eastern Connecticut ahead, 3-0 in the first. 

The Warriors scored three more in the third as Broadhurst hit a two-run home run off the scoreboard in left field and senior catcher Matt Malcom (East Lyme, Conn.) narrowly missed his fourth home run of the season with a long double to wall in left-center field, scoring Rich who doubled in the at-bat prior, giving Eastern Connecticut a 6-0 advantage after three. 

Adding an RBI to his 2-for-4 day, Bagdasarian's fourth-inning double in the center field gap helped extend the Warrior lead to seven and Malcom's second double of the game in the fifth gave Eastern Connecticut an 8-0 lead while graduate student right-hander Tommy Benincaso (Norwalk, Conn.) continued his stellar start on the mound. 

Before exiting with one out in the sixth inning, Benincaso retired the first nine Wheaton batters he faced until Guindon doubled over the head of graduate student outfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY) to give the Lyons their first hit of the game. The right-hander escaped the inning unharmed and allowed just two hits the rest of his outing. 

Benincaso finished the game going 5 1/3 innings while giving up one run on three hits, striking out six, and walking two to improve to 1-0.

While charged to Benincaso, the lone run of the game for Wheaton came on an RBI single from DeMattio off of first-year reliever Griffin Pontbriant (Bozrah, Conn.) before a fielder's choice and pop out to senior second baseman Noah Plantamuro (Bristol, Conn.) ended the threat for the Lyons.

Eastern Connecticut tacked on five more runs over the last three innings, including a four-run eighth inning, en route to their 13-1 victory. Two wild pitches and a passed ball scored three of the five Warrior runs while a sacrifice fly by senior first baseman Dean Slavin (Tappan, NY) and pinch-hit RBI single by junior catcher Colby Linnell (Prospect, Conn.) accounted for the other two Eastern Connecticut runs. 

In 3 2/3 innings of combined relief from Griffin Pontbriant, graduate right-hander Jack Wallace (Winthrop, MA), and sophomore right-hander Nolan Lincoln (Londonderry, NH), the Warrior bullpen let up no runs on one hit with three strikeouts and three walks. 

Wheaton returns to the diamond tomorrow when it hosts Rhode Island College at Sidell Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. first pitch, while Eastern Connecticut State heads on the road to play a Little East Conference doubleheader match-up scheduled against Plymouth State University on Saturday afternoon at Noon.