Thursday, April 30, 2015
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Last year, top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University was upended in the first round of the Little East Conference softball tournament by the No. 6 seed. In the opening round of the 2015 tournament the top-seeded Warriors made certain that it didn't happen again.
In the first of four games on the first day, Eastern (26-6-1) improved to 11-1-1 in its last 13 games by scoring five times in the bottom of the sixth on back-to-back doubles by senior leftfielder Shannon Martin (Wethersfield) and freshman pinch hitter Haeli Campbell (Goffstown, NH) and senior DP Samantha Rossetti's (Shelton) game-ending three-run home run in a 9-0, six-inning victory over sixth-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (8-19).
Friday at 10 a.m. in the double-elimination tournament, Eastern faces No. 4 seeded Plymouth State University (13-20), which dropped a 4-0 decision to No. 3 and defending champion Keene State College (15-17) Thursday. In the second of four games Friday at noon, Keene meets No. 5 University of Southern Maine (23-16) in a winners' bracket game. The Huskies upset No. 2 Western Connecticut State University (25-13), 8-7, Thursday. Western remained alive in Thursday's last game by eliminating UMass Dartmouth, 9-0, in five innings and will play Friday at 2 p.m.
Against UMass Dartmouth, senior righty Erin Miller (Waterford) pitched a complete-game four-hitter with five strikeouts and no walks for her tenth win of the season in 13 decisions.
Six of Eastern's nine hits went for extra bases. In addition to Rossetti's three-run game-winning blast in the sixth, junior shortstop Alyssa Hancock (Waterford) -- the LEC batting leader -- doubled twice to move to within three of the career record of 40 in that category.
Hancock doubled to lead off the Eastern first inning and rode home on a two-out single by sophomore catcher Kristyn Ryan (Barkhamsted), making only her fifth start at catcher this year in place of injured Taylor Smyth (Meriden).
