CLERMONT, Fla. -- Eastern Connecticut State University senior All-America Morgan Bolduk (Vernon) pitched a one-hit, five-inning shutout in an 8-0 win over Salve Regina University and the Warriors recorded their second one-run softball win of the year in a 2-1 victory over the College of Wooster Thursday morning at Legends Field.
 

Ranked ninth nationally, Eastern (10-2) improved to 6-0 in Florida with two games remaining Friday. The Warriors face McDaniel College at 1:45 p.m. and Rhodes College at 4 p.m. Friday before opening their northern schedule March 25 with a non-conference doubleheader at Springfield College.

 

Eastern Conn. 8, Salve Regina U. 0 (5 inn.)
 

Bolduk (2-0) retired the first nine batters in order with six strikeouts before losing a perfect game when Salve Regina's (1-1)  Chloe Bean reached on an infield error to open the fourth and the righty allowed her only hit when cleanup hitter Lauren Packer stroked a 1-1 pitch solidly to center for a  two-out single. Bolduk fanned Kylie Lanteri on a called third strike to strand Bean at second.
 

Bolduk struck out ten without a walk, facing only two batters over the minimum in posting her 34th career win.
 

Eastern scored twice in the first on back-to-back two-out doubles by senior third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) and senior DP Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) and broke it open by scoring four runs with junior second baseman Alyssa Vilchez' (Brampton, ON) RBI double the only hit out of the infield.

 

Salve graduate pitcher Jaycee Garrigan, who shut out Eastern as a sophomore in 2019, pitched the first four innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits and leaving with her team trailing, 7-0.
 

With Eastern leading 6-0, senior All-America Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) made it 7-0 with her 29th career home run -- a two-out shot that moved her into sole possession of second place all-time.
 

The game ended with the mercy rule invoked with two out in the fifth on first-year shortstop Maggie Rubeck's (Easthampton, MA) opposite-field single to right that plated Stoker.
 

Vilchez was the only Eastern hitter with more than one hit. In addition to her RBI double in the third, she reached leading off the second when her ground ball hit the first base bag.
 

Eastern Conn. 2, College of Wooster 1
 

First-year sophomore transfer Alexis Michon (Montville) won her third game in three starts in Florida, and Vilchez recorded her second save in as many days as the Warriors edged Wooster (3-2) in a game where each team managed only four hits.
 

Michon allowed her first run in 16 2/3 innings in Florida when the Scots cut a two-run deficit to one (2-1) by scoring in the fourth after there were two out and none on on ground ball single to center and a double on the first pitch to DP Gabby Lakes. Michon's sixth strikeout, however, left the tying run on second.
 

Eastern scored single runs in the first and second innings -- with graduate centerfielder Cassie Woods (Mystic) singling to open the game and scoring on a ground ball in the first and plating Rubeck (single and stolen bases) with a two-out single in the second -- but was handcuffed by Wooster sophomore Rachael Dudziak  the rest of the way.
 

The Warriors could not pad their early 2-0 lead after two innings as Dudziak kept them hitless over the next four innings and scoreless over the final five innings, allowing only five base-runners on a hit, walk, hit-by-pitch and two errors.
 

 Michon, who has struck out 29 batters in 16 2/3 innings in Florida, was lifted in favor of Vilchez after retiring the first two batters in the fifth and Eastern clinging to its 2-1 win.
 

Vilchez needed only one pitch to end the fifth -- retiring Brooke Swain on a bunt -- but survived several anxious moments in the sixth and seventh -- facing the go-ahead run in both innings -- to keep the Warriors unbeaten in Florida.
 

Vilchez left the tying run on first in the sixth when SanGiovanni fielded a roller on the third base line and threw out Katie Agatucci to end the inning, then ended the game when she got No. 9 hitter Destany Blake on a swinging strikeout on a pitch near her eyes with the tying run on second.
 

Woods had two of Eastern's hits and also had a sacrifice bunt in the seventh that moved a runner into scoring position.
 

Michon gave up three hits and a run while fanning eight without a walk in 4 2/3 innings while Vilchez pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and walk and fanning one.