Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth stopped a 19-game losing streak at the hands of Eastern Connecticut State University with a 2-1, ten-inning first-game win, then completed its first sweep of the Warriors in 18 years of Little East Conference play by winning the nightcap, 4-3, in a game stopped due to darkness after six innings.
The losses drop Eastern (13-23, 4-8 LEC) into a two-way tie for sixth in the conference with idle Plymouth State University, one game ahead of last-place Rhode Island College. In the final regular-season games of the year Saturday, Eastern visits Rhode Island and Plymouth State visits UMass Boston. If Eastern and Plymouth finish in a tie for the sixth and final playoff spot, Eastern holds the tie-breaker by virtue of its regular-season sweep at Plymouth April 9. Prior to this year, Eastern had won the previous six LEC regular-season titles.
The sweep gives UMass (25-12, 8-4 LEC) a season record for LEC regular-season wins. The Corsairs are in second place, a game ahead of the University of Southern Maine.
Five different Eastern players combined for its five hits on the day, with two Eastern pitchers allowing only one earned run, 11 hits and no walks in two losses.
Game 1
UMass Dartmouth 2, Eastern 1 (10)
Eastern tied the game in the sixth inning on junior Gina Georgetti's (Milford) two-out RBI double, but freshman Briana Flaherty scored on a game-ending passed ball in the bottom of the tenth.
Sophomore Hannah Smith tossed nine innings while striking out eight and allowing just two hits and one earned run, and senior Shannon Orton got the win with a 1-2-3 tenth inning. The pair limited Eastern to eight baserunners.
Junior righty Samantha Valentine (Ridge, NY) gave up seven hits and one earned run for Eastern in the route-going effort. She fanned three without a walk.
Game 2
UMass Dartmouth 4, Eastern 3 (6)
Orton won her 13th game of the season in a game which featured no earned runs, outdueling Eastern junior lefty Summer Cipriani (North Stonington). Cipriani fanned four in a complete-game four-hit performance and did not allow a a run after the Corsairs scored all of their runs in the first on two hits and two errors after there were two out and one runner aboard.
A loser of seven of its last eight, Eastern answered with all three of its unearned runs in the third on RBI doubles by senior shortstop Alysssa Hancock (Waterford) and senior third baseman Samantha Rentz' (Griswold). The hit by Hanock moved her to within two of becoming the third player in program history with as many as 200 career hits.
