MANSFIELD, Conn. – Complete games were the story on Saturday afternoon at Clyde Washburne Field in the first meeting of the year between 2021 Little East Conference softball tournament champion  Eastern Connecticut State University and 2021 Little East Conference regular-season champion University of Southern Maine.

In the first matchup between the teams since the 2021 Little East Conference best-of-three championship series -- won in two games by Eastern -- transfer pitcher Alexis Michon (Montville) spun a complete game in Game One leading the Warriors (16-4, 1-1 LEC) to an 8-1 victory before sophomore Belle Snyder matched Michon's performance with a complete game of her own in Game Two, leading the Huskies (7-10, LEC 1-1) to a doubleheader split with a 4-2 win.
 
Senior third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) nearly hit for the cycle in game one, going 3-for-3 with a single, double, and a home run in her four-RBI performance en route to a combined 3-for-6 day in the doubleheader with four total RBIs. Senior Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) also finished the doubleheader with a 3-for-6 day, recording two singles, a double, and an RBI which came in game one.
 
After seven innings, giving up only one run on three hits while striking out nine and walking none, Alexis Michon (8-1) earned her eighth win of the season in game one and lowered her ERA to 1.42 for the season. In relief of junior pitcher Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY), senior pitcher Morgan Bolduk (Vernon) threw 2 2/3 innings of shutout ball while allowing only one hit and striking out three in the game two loss. Bolduk also recorded her first two plate appearances of the season, going 1-for-2 with a single.
 

Eastern Conn. 8, Southern Maine 1
 
SanGiovanni would get the scoring started early for Eastern with an RBI single that drove in Matyasovsky to put the Warriors ahead 1-0 in the first inning. A second-inning double by Stoker just inside the left field foul line would extend the lead to two runs, scoring Michon from first on the play.
 
After retiring the first eight batters she faced, Michon would give up a long home run to senior left fielder Samantha Hauck, cutting the Eastern lead in half, 2-1. The Warriors would respond in a big way with six unanswered runs the rest of the way to give them a commanding seven-run advantage and the eventual first game victory.
 
A SanGiovanni double in the third helped plate two more runs for Eastern in the third inning and trouble from the relief appearance of first-year pitcher Morgan Moulton helped push three more Warriors across in the fourth inning via a fielder's choice by junior outfielder Taylor Darby (South Windsor), a Matyasovsky single, and a walk issued to sophomore second baseman Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA). Coming up again in the sixth inning, SanGiovanni hit a home run inside the right field foul pole, capping off Eastern's 8-1 victory.

Southern Maine 4, Eastern Conn. 2
 
Drawing first blood against Carley Stoker in game two, first-year catcher Morgan Roast lifted a fly ball just out of the reach of Darby in left field to put the Huskies in front 1-0 in the second inning. Southern Maine tacked on another run in the very next inning with an RBI single from junior second baseman Lauren Leidemann-Smith on a groundball just out of the diving reach of Remillard at second base.
 
Extending their lead to four over Eastern in the fifth, Leidemann-Smith delivered the big blow with a two-run double to the warning track in right field which first-year right fielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) relayed in to junior catcher Carolyn Biel (Wallingford) who tagged Snyder at the plate before throwing to third to get Leidemann-Smith trying to advance. After review, the umpires ruled obstruction, pushing Leidemann-Smith back to second and allowing Snyder to score, making it a 4-0 ballgame.
 
Taylor Darby would slash the Eastern deficit in half with a two-out, two-RBI triple off the top of the fence in left-center field before a four-pitch walk to Matyasovsky brought up SanGiovanni as the go-ahead run. Snyder forced the third baseman to groundout to her, ending the threat which would be the last for the Warriors in the 4-2 decision.
 
Belle Snyder finished game two having gone the distance giving up two runs on five hits while striking out three and walking one.
 
Up Next
 
Eastern returns to the road for a Little East Conference doubleheader matchup against Massachusetts Dartmouth on Tuesday afternoon. Game one is scheduled to get underway at UMD Softball Complex at 3:30 PM. The Warriors swept all four games of the head-to-head matchup last season, including a thrilling 13-12 win courtesy of a walk-off home run by graduate outfielder Cassie Woods (Mystic) at home.