PLYMOUTH, N.H. – By sweeping Western Connecticut State University Thursday evening, the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team became the first to win or share as many as many as six straight Little East Conference regular-season championships.
Saturday, by defeating Plymouth State University in the first game of an eventual doubleheader sweep, the Warriors guaranteed themselves the No. 1 playoff seed for the sixth straight year and their fifth outright championship in that span.
Against Plymouth (12-18, 7-5 Little East) Saturday at D& M Park, Eastern (25-6-1, 13-1 Little East) scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to record a 7-5 opening win, then used a six-run third inning in the nightcap to complete its sixth conference doubleheader sweep in a 9-5 victory.
Eastern will host the three-day Little East double elimination tournament beginning Thursday at the Eastern Softball Stadium. The Warriors will open against the No. 6 seed in the first of four games on the first day at 10 a.m.
In the seventh inning of the opener Saturday, junior shortstop Alyssa Hancock (Waterford) singled and reached third on an error, and sophomore second baseman Danielle Robillard (Swansea, MA) plated her with the tying run with a sacrifice bunt. Senior rightfielder Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) later drove in the go-ahead runs with a two-out, two-run double.
In the opener, junior righty Emily Komornik (Shelton) pitched three scoreless innings of relief for her fourth win in five decisions, and sophomore lefty Summer Cipriani (North Stonignton) got the final out on a line drive to third base that stranded the tying runs on base.
Sophomore catcher Kristyn Ryan (Barkhamsted) highlighted the six-run third inning in the second game with a grand slam and she added a two-run single in the fifth that gave her six RBI (one shy of the record). Sophomore Samantha Valentine (Ridge, NY) allowed three earned runs over the first six innings to earn her tenth win in12 decisions.
In the doubleheader, Martin had five hits – including the 100th of her career with her first hit in the second inning of the opener. Ryan and Hancock each had three hits. Hancock scored four runs and Martin three and Martin and senior first baseman Sam Rossetti (Shelton) followed Ryan's six RBI with two each.
In the last six years of LEC regular-season play, Eastern has won 75 and lost nine. The team was 14-0 in 2012 and three times finished 13-1 in that stretch.
