WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – After the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team squandered a four-run lead in the first inning, junior catcher Taylor Smyth (Meriden) squeezed home sophomore pinch runner Rebecca DeFeo (Exeter, RI) with one out in the eighth in the Warriors' 5-4 victory over Ramapo College Thursday morning at Diamondplex.
In the second game, senior righty Erin Miller (Waterford) pitched a complete-game three-hitter and former high school teammate Alyssa Hancock (Waterford) – a junior shortstop and leadoff hitter -- was 4-for-4 with two triples and three runs scored in Eastern's 5-1 victory over Centenary College (NJ) at Diamondplex.
Against Ramapo, Eastern (6-2) scored four runs on four hits off Christina Brizek (2-2) but the freshman righty followed with six straight shutout innings – giving up only one hit – and Ramapo (6-3) scored single runs in the third and fifth and tied the game with two runs on three hits in the sixth.
With the teams utilizing the international tie-breaker rule which puts a runner on second base beginning in the eighth inning, sophomore lefty Summer Cipriani (North Stonington) retired the Roadrunners on a foul fly and two infield ground balls to leave the go-ahead run on second in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, senior rightfielder Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) sacrificed the winning run to third. On a one-strike pitch, Smyth dropped a bunt and DeFeo slid home with the winning run.
Hancock, who recorded her 100th career hit with an infield single leading off the first inning against Ramapo, tripled and scored on sophomore third baseman Danielle Robillard's (Swansea, MA) to open the game against Centenary (1-7), tied the program game record with her second triple in the second, singled and scored in the fifth on senior first baseman Sam Rossetti's (Shelton) single, reached on a bunt single, stole second and scored on Rossetti's sac fly in the seventh.
Against Centenary, sophomore catcher Tyler Keegan (Middletown) contributed two of Eastern's 12 hits with singles.
Miller (2-1) allowed only three baserunners through the first five innings against the Cyclones before a leadoff triple and bunt ruined the shutout in the sixth.
The third of three Eastern pitchers, Cipriani (1-0) was summoned while Ramapo was tying the game in the sixth. Cipriani got a ground ball and infield pop around an infield error to keep the game tied in the sixth and gloved consecutive popups to leave the go-ahead run at third base in the seventh.
Eastern closes out its Florida trip Friday at Diamondplex, facing Rowan at 10 a.m. and Ramapo at 12;15 p.m.
