Eastern Connecticut State University

Arielle R. (Cooper) Porter was a player who reached base safely in 75 consecutive games and batted .484 in her two final All-America seasons. In a 177-game career as a four-year starting third baseman between 2010 and 2013, Cooper was twice named All-America – earning first-team recognition as a senior when she was additionally honored as ECAC and Little East Conference Player-of-the-Year. That year, she became the program’s first first-team All-America third baseman and set program season records in batting (.538), slugging (1.076) and on-base (.629) average, hits (71), home runs (16), extra-base hits (34), total bases (142), and runs (61).
 
Cooper began her senior season on a 26-game hitting streak (batting .625 with ten multiple-hit games in the first 11 contests) and reached safely with a hit or walk in the first 37 games of a 42-game season. Including a game where she reached safely on an error, Cooper reached safely in the first 40 games of the year.  After going 18-for-26 (.692) with 14 runs and nine RBI in a seven-game stretch midway through the season, Cooper was batting .643, and was still batting over .600 with eight games left in the regular season. As a senior – when she was honored as the department’s Female Athlete-of-the-Year -- Cooper led New England in numerous offensive categories and nationally was ranked second in on-base percentage, runs per game (1.45) and total runs, third in batting and slugging average,  fourth in home runs per game (0.38)  and tied for fourth in total home runs,  tied for fifth in total walks (34), sixth in toughest to strike out (1-to-66 ABs) and seventh in walks per game (0.81). Among the top 17 players ranked nationally in batting average, her 71 hits were the most in the nation.
 
In her final two years, the Mystic native reached safely by either hit, walk or error in 75 of 89 games. .As a testament to her abilities as both a power hitter and table-setter, the right-handed hitter filled the rare role as both a cleanup hitter and leadoff hitter over her final two seasons. After batting .439 as a junior on a team which won a record 40 straight games and 44 of 47 on the season en route to a third straight LEC tournament title, Cooper was walked 34 times as a senior – the most in a season in 25 years. In an LEC doubleheader against the University of Southern Maine that year, she was walked six times (scoring five runs and stealing two bases) and in the second game of a doubleheader against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, was walked intentionally in all four plate appearances – including as the leadoff hitter in the game. After striking out 29 times in 256 official at-bats in her first two years, Cooper fanned only eight times in 289 official at-bats over her two All-America seasons. As a senior, she struck out only twice in 132 official at-bats, going the first 28 contests before being set down on strikes.
 
In that junior season, Cooper set the current program record with a 33-game hitting streak that came on the heels of 0-for-10 showing over three games in late March. The streak began in the tenth game of the year with a first-inning single against Bethel University in Clermont, FL and ended six weeks later when she went hitless (but opened the game by reaching on an error) against Coast Guard in the second round of the NCAA Division III Regional (she went on to contribute five hits in the final four games of that tournament). That year, she was named Most Outstanding player of the Little East tournament by going 9-for-14 with seven RBI, a double and two home runs and ten putouts in the field without an error.
 
At Eastern, Cooper helped the Warriors to a four-year overall record of 146-30 (83.0 percent), a 51-5 LEC regular-season record and four straight LEC regular-season titles and a 14-2 LEC tournament mark with three straight championships.
 
Ten years after graduation, Cooper still holds program career records for hits (221), runs (176), extra-base hits (91) and total bases (403), is second in batting average (.406), home runs (40), slugging (.739), games (177) and at-bats (544), and third in fielding assists (310). The season records that she set in 2013 for total bases, runs, batting, slugging and on-base percentage all remain today, and that season’s records for hits, home runs and extra-base hits remain as the second-best season marks in program history.
 
At Fitch High School in Groton, Cooper won a state championship as a player, and competed in two NCAA national tournaments at Eastern before returning to lead Fitch to two more state titles as a head coach.
 
A member of the Little East All-Academic Team in every season of eligibility, Cooper earned a B.S. Degree in Sport & Leisure Management from Eastern and an M.S. Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Connecticut. In the spring of 2023, Cooper completed her third season as head softball coach at Coast Guard (where she also teaches health and physical education), the Bears posting a record of 31-11.Cooper and husband Greg Porter (ECSU ’15) reside in Groton.