PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Graduate student Cassie Woods (Mystic) and juniors Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) and Carolyn Biel (Wallingford) combined for 16 hits, 12 runs and eight RBI to power the unbeaten No. 7 nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University softball team to a 17-0, 10-2 Little East Conference sweep of Rhode Island College Friday afternoon the Dayna A. Bazar Softball Complex. Both games were stopped due to the eight-run rule, the first game after five innings and the second game after six.
 
In completing a four-game regular-season sweep of Rhode Island by a combined score of 54-6, Eastern (16-0, 6-0 LEC) amassed 12 doubles and three home runs among Friday's 36 hits. Woods, who has hit safely in every game this year, was 6-for-7 with a double, six runs scored and two RBI; SanGiovanni was 6-for-6 with two doubles, two runs and two RBI, and Biel was 5-for-6 with four doubles, a home run, walk, four RBI and four runs scored. Senior Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) added a double, home run and two singles, drove in four runs and scored three.
 
This year, Eastern is batting .450 as a team with a .716 slugging percentage and is averaging 9.8 runs per game and allowing an average of 2.3
 
Junior righties Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) and Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) both remained perfect on the mound this year with their eighth wins. Stoker pitched her fifth shutout in the opener, fanning eight and allowing four singles and a walk. Matyasovsky gave up nine hits and two earned runs while walking five in the nightcap. The pair lowered their season earned-run average to 1.84.
 
Appearing in her first games this year following ACL surgery, sophomore utility player Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run score. As a pinch hitter and center field replacement in the first game, Vilchez had an RBI single in the top of the fifth. She started the second game at second base and was 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored.
 
In four games this year against Rhode Island, SanGiovanni is 12-for-13, Woods 9-for-13 with ten runs scored, Matyasovsky 10-for-15 with three doubles and two home runs, six runs and six RBI, and Biel 6-for-9 with five doubles, a home run, two walks, a hit-by-pitch, six runs and six RBI.
 
Like Woods, Tyrrell has reached safely in all 16 games this year and SanGiovanni in 15. Woods (.596) and SanGiovanni (.532) are both batting over .500 this year, with Matyasovsky at .500.
 
Eastern hosts Keene State College in a conference doubleheader Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at Clyde Washburne Field.