MANSFIELD, Conn. – Graduate transfer Cassie Woods (Mystic) slammed her first career home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the seventh inning for a walk-off home run to lift the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team to a 13-12 victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the Warriors went on to a sweep of their Little East Conference doubleheader Friday afternoon at Clyde Washburne Field.
 
In the second game, leadoff-hitting Woods followed her two-hit, two-run first-game performance with four hits and scored four runs to power nationally 12^th-ranked Eastern (12-0, 4-0 LEC) to a 9-0, five-inning victory.

 

Junior righty pitcher/first baseman Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) won the opener in relief of junior starter Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY), then pitched a five-inning, complete-game three-hitter in the nightcap for her sixth win without a loss this year.
 
Despite allowing nine earned runs on 12 hits and ten walks, Stoker was within a pitch of the first-game win before an infield throwing error allowed UMass (0-7-1, 0-4 LEC) to tie the game with two runs in the top of the seventh.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, Woods belted the first home run of her four-year career over the right-center field fence on the first pitch she saw from senior righty Jill Richards as Eastern avoided a collapse after the Corsairs erased deficits of 10-4 after two innings and 12-7 after five. UMD scored three times on two hits and three walks in the top of the sixth to cut its deficit to 12-10, then tied the game with two unearned runs on Richards' leadoff double, two infield errors, and freshman starting pitcher Kaitlyn Shirshac's sacrifice fly.
 
Matyasovsky, who took over for Stoker after Richards' leadoff double in the seventh, kept the game tied by getting senior leadoff hitter Kyle Fletcher to ground to Eastern freshman second baseman Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) on a 1-1 pitch to end the top of the seventh.
 
After scoring six runs in the bottom of the first inning of the first game to erase a 3-0 deficit, Eastern struck quickly again in the nightcap, pushing across five runs  on  six hits in the bottom of the first inning of the second game. Stoker hit her second home run of the afternoon – a three-run shot – to drive in the first three runs, and senior catcher/DP Megan Hodgdon (Cheshire) followed a double by Matyasovsky with her first of two second-game home runs to account for the final two runs of the inning.
 
In addition to Woods and Stoker, Matyasovsky and second-year Division I transfer third baseman Carolyn Biel (Wallingford) also homered in the first game. It was Matyasovsky's team-leading fifth of the year (Stoker tying for the team lead with her second-game blast) and the first collegiate homer for Biel, who drilled a 2-2 pitch off the fair pole in right to cap the six-run first inning.
 
After combining for nine errors in the first game, the teams played flawless defense in the second contest. Remillard handed nine chances without an error on the day and has a 1.000 season fielding average on 26 chances.
 
Having hit safely in every game this year, Woods was 6-for-8 on the day with six runs, a double and game-winning home run and improved her team-leading average to .556 and on-base percentage to .660. Stoker was 5-for-7 with a double and two home runs, four runs and seven RBI; Hodgdon 5-for-7 with her two home runs, three RBI and three runs scored; and Matyasovsky 4-for-6 with two doubles and a home run, walk, four RBI and two runs scored.
 
Junior rightfielder Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) reached five times with two singles, two hit-by-pitch and a walk, plated three runs and scored three and moved to within a hit of 100 in her career. Tyrrell and Woods have both reached safely in every game this year while junior shortstop Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) has been aboard in all but one.
 
In winning both games on the mound, Matyasovsky was not charged with an earned run in six innings. She allowed three hits and four walks, posting her second shutout in her last two starts. She has not allowed an earned run in her last 20 2/3 innings over her last five appearances.
 
UMass, which has lost four games this year by a run and another in nine innings, got three hits from Richards, Fletcher, and freshman third baseman Hailey Lyons. Lyons drove in three runs and Fletcher had two doubles, scored twice and drove in a run. Senior shortstop Leah Major reached five times with two singles and a walk, drove in two runs and scored one.
 
Eastern visits UMass Dartmouth in a non-conference doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m. in its first games away from home this year.