MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Junior shortstop Alyssa Hancock (Waterford) moved her batting average above .500 by going 7-for-8 with a triple and home run as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team gained a win and tie in a non-conference doubleheader against Wesleyan University Wednesday afternoon. The Warriors won the opener, 6-4, in eight innings and the teams played to a 3-3, eight-inning tie in the nightcap.
Now 13-1-1 in its last 15 games, Eastern (19-4-1) broke a tie with three runs in the top of the eighth inning of the opener -- utilizing four bunts -- with Hancock plating the first with a single to center, junior third baseman Samantha Rentz (Griswold) making it 5-3 with a bunt single and senior first baseman Sam Rossetti (Shelton) driving in Hancock with a successful suicide squeeze.
Wesleyan (12-12-1) got one back with a ground ball, but junior righty Emily Komornik (Shelton) nailed down her third win in as many decisions by leaving a runner stranded with a game-ending ground ball to Hancock.
Eastern staked sophomore righty Samantha Valentine (Ridge, NY) to a 3-0 lead after three innings of the nightcap, but the Cardinals erased that deficit for the second straight game. They got two back in the fourth when leadoff batter Jamie Horn reached first on a wild pitch after striking out and Jill Gately and Rielly Wieners had back-to-back doubles. Valentine was lifted after giving up a leadoff double to No. 8 hitter Angelina Massoia leading off the fifth, and leadoff hitter Isabel Linzer singled to left to tie the game against sophomore lefty Summer Cipriani (North Stonington).
Eastern loaded the bases in the seventh inning of the second game but complete-game pitcher Susan Pardo ended the threat by retiring Rentz on a foul fly to left. The hosts threatened to win the game in the bottom of the eighth with the help of a single, wild pitch and error, but Horn was thrown out stealing and Cipriani got two outs on ground balls to Hancock at short.
In the first game, Eastern broke a pitcher's duel between senior Erin Miller (Waterford) of Eastern and Wesleyan freshman lefty Julie McDonald by scoring once in the fifth and twice in the seventh to move out to a 3-0 lead. Rentz doubled to lead off the fifth and scored on an infield error to make it 1-0, and sophomore second baseman Gina Georgetti's (Milford) two-run single plated Hancock and pinch runner Rebecca DeFeo (Exeter, RI) in the seventh to make it 3-0.
Hancock was 4-for-5 in the opener with four singles and reached in all four plate appearances in the nightcap with three hits and a walk. She led off the second game with a triple and scored on Rentz' suicide squeeze, belted a two-run home run with one out in the third to make it 3-0, reached on an infield single in the fifth and was intentionally walked to load the bases in the seventh.
Hancock had seven of Eastern's 16 hits on the day to improve her team-leading average to .524., while senior leftfielder Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) moved to within five of 100 with two hits. Rentz also had two hits. Hancock had a 20-game hitting streak ended in the second game of Tuesday's night's Little East Conference doubleheader sweep of visiting UMass Dartmouth.
Eastern visits Rhode Island College Saturday in a Little East Conference doubleheader at 1 p.m.
