MANSFIELD, Conn. – Senior leftfielder Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) and junior shortstop Alyssa Hancock (Waterford) accounted for all of their team's runs in the first game with three-run home runs to lead the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team to a 6-5, 12-0 Little East Conference sweep of the University of Southern Maine Wednesday afternoon at the Eastern Softball Stadium. The second game was stopped after five innings.
Hancock staked Eastern to a 3-0 lead with her second home run in as many days in the third inning of the first game, and Martin hit a tie-breaking three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to make a winner of junior righty Emily Komornik (Shelton), who allowed two unearned runs over the final two innings.
On the afternoon, Hancock drove in five runs with her home run in the first game and a two-run double in an eight-run second inning that made it 12-0 in the nightcap. Batting only .200 with two extra-base hits entering the day, Martin had two hits and scored two runs in the opener and also had an RBI single in Eastern's eight-run second inning in the nightcap.
A winner of five straight, Eastern (11-3, 2-0 LEC) extended its series winning streak to 16 over Southern Maine (7-7, 0-2 LEC) with its second sweep in as many days.
In the second game, sophomore Samantha Valentine (Ridge, NY) pitched a one-hitter through the first four innings and sophomore Summer Cipriani (North Stonington) pitched a hitless fifth and the pair was backed by a 13-hitt attack.
Junior catcher Taylor Smyth (Meriden) led Eastern on the day with four hits and scored three runs, with Martin and junior third baseman Samantha Rentz (Griswold) adding three hits each. Martin scored three runs to go along with her four RBI. Eight of Eastern's 20 hits on the day went for extra bases. Eastern pitchers limited USM to only one extra-base hit among its seven hits.
Playing its first games in over two weeks, Southern Maine got two hits from freshman leadoff hitter Taylor Lux and two from freshman catcher Courtney Davis. Davis, batting third in the order, drove in two runs with two out in the top of the seventh inning of the first game to slice Eastern's lead to one run, but Komornik induced a game-ending infield popup.
Eastern hosts the University of Massachusetts Boston Saturday in a 1 p.m. Little East Conference doubleheader.
