GORHAM, Maine  --  Junior center fielder Randy Re (Danbury, Conn.) had three hits and three RBI to pace the Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors' 15-hit attack en route to a 9-4 victory over the Rhode Island College Anchormen in a first round game of the six-team, double-elimination, 2006 Little East Conference Baseball Championship Tournament being played at the University of Southern Maine.

The win moves the third-seeded Warriors, 25-16 overall, into a second round game against second-seeded Keene State College at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.  Rhode Island College, 20-19 and the defending tournament champion, will try to stave off elimination when it faces Southern Maine in the middle game (12:00 p.m.) of the three scheduled for Thursday.  USM defeated UMass Dartmouth 10-1 in its first round game.  The other second round game pits the UMass Boston against UMass Dartmouth in an elimination game starting at 9:00 a.m.

Seniors Chris DeSantis (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and Marc Garofalo (South Kingstown, R.I.) also had three hits, and senior Greg Sullivan (Needham, Mass.) had two, for the Warriors.

Leading 1-0 in the third inning, Eastern Conn. struck for a pair of runs on Re's two-out, two-run double to the right-center field gap.  Re led off the fifth inning with a bunt single and came around to score on a double by junior Matt Cooney (Arlington, Mass.).  Re picked up his third RBI of the game with a triple to right-center in the sixth, but was thrown out at the plate trying for an inside-the-park homer.

The fourth-seeded Anchormen picked up a single unearned run in the fifth on an RBI bunt single by junior Luis Feliz (Cranston, R.I.).  In the top of the sixth, the Anchormen pulled within two (6-4) on an RBI single by junior Michael Naylor (Warwick, R.I.) and a two-run single by freshman Bobby Fournier (Dartmouth, Mass.).  But that was as close as the Anchormen would get as the Warriors struck for two in their half of the inning.

Senior Ray De La Cruz (Providence, R.I.), freshman Josh Cardoso (Dartmouth, Mass.) and Fournier each had two hits for the Anchormen.

Freshman southpaw Shawn Gilblair (Windham, Conn.), the Eastern Conn. starting pitcher, picked up his fifth win of the season with relief help from junior Sam Iverson (New Milford, Conn.) and sophomore Joe Esposito (East Haven, Conn.).  Gilblair went 5.1 innings allowing eight hits and one walk while striking out five.  Two of the four runs he was charged with were unearned.