WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The second-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University softball team heads to the University of Southern Maine for the Little East Conference tournament championship series Saturday with a bundle of individual post-season awards.
Ranked sixth nationally, Eastern (28-2) faces unheralded, unranked but highly-accomplished and top-seeded Southern Maine (31-2-1) with seven players having earned recognition in both the National Fastpitch Coaches' Association (NFCA) and Little East Conference post-season awards program.
Eastern features an unprecedented number of total (7) and first-team (6) All-New England Region selections and an equal number of All-LEC overall and first-teamers. In addition to the All-LEC picks, Eastern players were recognized with two of the three major awards given to players in junior utility player
Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) as Player-of-the-Year and junior right-hander
Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) as Pitcher-of-the-Year.
Five of Eastern's six first-team All-LEC players landed on the All-Region first team. Joining Matyasovsky and Stoker as first-teamers on both teams were outfielders
Cassie Woods (Mystic) and
Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) and shortstop
Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven). Woods is a graduate transfer from Keene State College, Tyrrell a senior and SanGiovanni a junior.
Junior third baseman
Carolyn Biel (Wallingford) was named first-team All-LEC and third-team All-Region while senior captain
Megan Hodgdon (Cheshire) was voted Eastern's first
first-team All-Region catcher in 13 years after being named second-team All-LEC.
Matyasovsky becomes Eastern's fifth LEC Player-of-the-Year in the last ten years and Stoker the sixth Pitcher-of-the-Year in the last 12. In the 2019 LEC awards program (there were no awards in 2020), Matyasovsky, Tyrrell and SanGiovanni were first-team picks and Matyasovsky the Rookie-of-the-Year. In 2018, Tyrrell and Hodgdon were named to the second team.
Heading into the LEC championship round, Matyasovsky is batting .460 and is the team-leader with 13 home runs, 13 doubles, 98 total bases, a .980 slugging percentage, and 43 RBI and is 13-2 with a staff-best 1.82 in 82 2/3 innings; A first-year Division I transfer, Stoker is 15-0 with a 2.17 ERA with 99 strikeouts in 100 innings and is batting .378 with 70 total bases and 39 RBI.
Woods has reached safely in all 22 games in which she has appeared this year and leads the team in hitting (.586), runs (42) and on-base percentage (.655). Tyrrell is second on the team with a .474 average, 71 total bases and 39 runs scored and a team-high 18 stolen bases and tops the team with 17 multi-hit games; SanGiovanni is third in batting (.471) and has 48 total bases and a .548 on-base percentage and .686 slugging percentage. She leads the team with
In her first full season at Eastern after transferring from the Division I level, Biel is batting .382 with 19 RBI and a team-high 48 assists. Hodgdon is a fifth-year player who is second on the team with 100 putouts and has a 1.000 fielding percentage. She is batting a career-high .362 and has 575 career putouts and a .979 fielding average.
A total of 18 institutions were represented on the 41-player All-Region team. Eastern had six of 13 first-team picks and six of 14 first-team All-LEC selections.
Southern Maine featured four first-team All-LEC players and three second-teamers, with first-team pitcher Kirsten Pelletier and first-team catcher Ashley Tinsman finding spots as second-team and third-team selections on the All-Region team, respectively.
Southern Maine finished a game up over Eastern in the final LEC standings and needs three wins to establish a program record. The teams have met only once previously in the championship round, with USM winning in the first season of the championship in 1998. Since then, the Huskies have finished second four times, most recently in 2006. Since 1998, Eastern has won five tournament championships and finished second once.
Eastern has won five of the last ten LEC tournament titles and is the defending champion after claiming the 2019 crown with four straight wins at top-seeded UMass Dartmouth.
Eastern and USM have advanced to Saturday's final by having won their respective three-team pods this week. The Warriors defeated Plymouth State University, 3-1 and Keene State College, 4-2 and USM downed Castleton University, 4-1 and UMass Dartmouth, 10-8.
Eastern brings a seven-game win streak into the final while Southern Maine has won six straight since losing the second game of a home doubleheader to Eastern by a score of 6-3 May 2. USM won the opener, 7-6, by scoring the final four runs after trailing 6-3.
In the split at Southern Maine, Stoker allowed eight hits and walked six in the first-game loss and Matyasovsky went the distance in the second-game win. Matyasovsky also had two doubles and a home run and Tyrrell had four hits and three RBI on the day. USM had eight hits in each game against Eastern, with Pelletier winning the opener despite giving up six earned runs and five extra-base hits in a complete-game effort. The Warriors played the games without Woods, SanGiovanni and Biel.
Pelletier, a graduate student, and Alexis Brown, a senior, joined Stoker as All-LEC first-team pitchers. Pelletier is 13-0 with a 2.11 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 99 1/3 innings and 13 complete games in 14 starts; Brown's loss to Eastern is the only blemish on her record. She has won 11 games with a 1.82 ERA, and 64 strikeouts in 73 innings.
NFCA All-New England Region Softball Team
First Team
Megan Hodgdon Sr. Catcher
Brooke Matyasovsky Jr. Utility/DP
Julia SanGiovanni Jr. Shortstop
Carley Stoker Jr. Pitcher
Alexis Tyrrell Sr. Outfield
Cassie Woods Gr. Outfield
Third Team
Carolyn Biel Jr. Third Base
Little East Conference Major Softball Awards
Brooke Matyasovsky Jr. Player-of-the-Year
Carley Stoker Jr. Pitcher-of-the-Year
All-Conference
First Team
Carolyn Biel Jr. Third Base
Brooke Matyasovsky Jr. Utility/Pitcher
Julia SanGiovanni Jr. Shortstop
Carley Stoker Jr. Pitcher
Alexis Tyrrell Sr. Outfield
Cassie Woods Gr. Outfield
Second Team
Megan Hodgdon Sr. Catcher
