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Box Score 2 MANSFIELD, Conn. – Junior first baseman Sam Rossetti (Shelton) and senior centerfielder Mattie Brett (Waterford) each drove in four runs as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team swept Salve Regina University, 7-1, 7-2 in a non-conference doubleheader Thursday afternoon at the Eastern Softball Stadium.
At right: Sam Rossetti
A winner of 12 of its last 13, Eastern (13-9) improved to 9-1 since returning from Florida. Salve (11-13) had won four of its previous five entering play.
Senior righty Erin Miller (Waterford) pitched a complete-game seven-hitter for her sixth win in ten decisions in the opener, striking out three without a walk. Brett drove in three runs with a home run in the fourth inning of the first game after tripling to lead off the third and scoring on Rossetti's suicide squeeze. Freshman Hannah Latham (Salem, NH) made it 3-0 with her first career home run later in the third.
Eastern gave up a 2-0 lead in the second game but bounced back by scoring five times in its last two at-bats to defeat Salve for the 12th time in this 15-game series. Trailing 2-0, Salve got one back in the third on a hit batter, two singles and a ground ball by Genevieve Benoit and tied the game with an unearned run in the fourth on No. 9 hitter Nikki Bukovsky's two-out single.
Rossetti broke the 2-2 tie with a two-run double in the fifth and Eastern scored three times in the sixth on an outfield error, three hits and two walks. Sophomore shortstop Alyssa Hancock (Waterford) and first-year sophomore third baseman Samantha Rentz (Griswold) had back-to-back doubles in the inning, and Brett also singled in a run to improve her season batting average to .435.
In the second game, junior Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) pitched a scoreless fifth inning in relief of freshman starter Samantha Valentine (Ridge, NY) to gain her first win of the year in her first decision, and sophomore Emily Komornik (Shelton) retired six straight over the final two innings to earn her first career save. Valentine gave up only one earned run through four innings but departed with the game tied.
In the second game, Eastern's top four hitters (Hancock-Rentz-Brett and Rossetti) combined for nine of the team's 11 hits, six RBI and five runs scored. Rentz had three hits and scored twice and Brett added two runs and scored twice. Both also drove in a run.
Eastern visits the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday in a Little East Conference noon doubleheader.
