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Box Score 2 MANSFIELD, Conn. -- Senior All-America Arielle Cooper (Mystic) broke the softball program's career hit record with a two-run triple in the sixth inning of the first game as Eastern Connecticut State University swept a Little East Conference doubleheader against the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Tuesday evening by scores of 8-1 and 9-0 in five innings at the Eastern Softball Field.
Cooper tied the Eastern (20-8, 7-1 Little East) career hit record with her 14th home run of the season leading off the first inning, then broke the year-old hit mark with her 207th hit in a four-run sixth inning.
Sophomore DP Sam Rossetti (Shelton) led a 16-hit attack in the doubleheader with four hits and four RBI, belting her fifth home run of the year and driving in two runs in the first inning of the nightcap.
Senior first baseman Kelly Paterson (Southington) added three hits and two RBI in the doubleheader and Cooper finished with three RBI. Junior centerfielder Mattie Brett (Waterford) reached five times with two hits and three walks and scored five runs, and Cooper scored four times. Junior leftfielder Megan Godwin (Manchester) also reached five times with four walks and a hit.
Sophomore Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) pitched four innings of scoreless relief to win her fifth game in seven decisions in the opener, and sophomore Erin Miller (Waterford) was credited with her first career shutout in the nightcap, allowing only three hits and no walks and fanning one. Martin gave up four hits and a walk with two strikeouts in the first game.
Through this past weekend, Cooper led Division III in home runs per game, runs per game and toughest to strikeout (no strikeouts this year). She was second in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, and fourth in total home runs. As a team, the Warriors ranked fourth in slugging percentage, seventh in doubles per game, and ninth in batting average.
Freshman rightfielder Rachel Carey, senior catcher Breanna Marcyoniak, sophomore second baseman Samantha Gregoire and junior shortstop Emily Pontes all had two hits for UMass Dartmouth (9-21, 1-7 Little East). Marcyoniak and Carey doubled in the first inning of the opener to produce the only run for UMass, which stranded eight, including two in the fourth and fifth when they trailed by only two runs.
