KEENE, N.H. –Senior centerfielder Samantha Bardos (Norwalk) hit go-ahead two-run home runs in each game – her first homers of the season -- as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team swept Keene State College for the third time in five years by scores of 7-4 and 9-4 Saturday afternoon at the Owl Athletic Complex.

With the wins, Eastern (11-19, 6-4 LEC) moves into second place in the conference, a game behind Western Connecticut and a half-game ahead of UMass Boston. Keene (13-13, 4-4 LEC) has lost four straight and five of six.

Bardos snapped a 4-4 tie with a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning of the first game, and swatted a tie-breaking two-run home run in the sixth inning of the nightcap – each time scoring freshman shortstop Sara Pisanelli (Wallingford) ahead of her.

Senior DP Kristyn Ryan (Barkhamsted) homered twice and Bardos once in the first game to make a winner of senior righty Samantha Valentine (Ridge, NH), who pitched the final 2 2/3 hitless innings with two strikeouts and no walks for her fifth win in 12 decisions. Bardos snapped a 4-4 tie with a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning and Ryan followed with a solo shot as the Warriors rallied after blowing a 4-2 lead after four innings.

Keene rallied to tie the second game, 7-7, by batting around and scoring four runs on four hits, an error and walk in the fourth before the Warriors pushed across two runs in the sixth on Pisanelli's one-out walk and Bardos' two-run shot to left center.

Ryan and Bardos combined for seven hits, eight runs scored and nine RBI in the doubleheader. Ryan was 4-for-8 with two homers, a double, four runs scored and four RBI in Eastern's 21-hit attack to raise her team-leading average to .396. Bardos was 3-for-7 with four runs scored and five RBI. Batting leadoff, Pisanelli reached base six times with four hits (two doubles) and two walks and scored five runs and is now batting .348, Junior leftfielder Jessica Seymour (Barkhamsted) had four hits and Gina Georgetti (Milford) three.

Valentine started the second game but did not survive the second inning and was charged with three earned runs on five hits but making her staff-high 16^th relief appearance freshman lefty Morgan Sanson (Thomaston) worked a career-high 5 1/3 innings for her second win against five losses. Sanson left a runner aboard when she got the final out of the second on a swinging strikeout and allowed runs in only one of five innings (when Keene went ahead, 7-6, with its four-run fourth).

Trailing 7-6, Eastern tied the second game game with a run in the fifth on Seymour's leadoff single, two ground balls and a wild pitch, and won it in the sixth on Bardo's blast that chased Keene loser Summer Cavanaugh, the third of four Keene pitchers.

Ryan extended her hitting streak to eight in the doubleheader – the longest of the season by any player this year, and has reached safely in her last nine. Pisanelli has reached base in eight straight and Bardos in seven.

Eastern visits defending LEC tournament champion Western Connecticut Tuesday for a 4:30 p.m. doubleheader.