PLYMOUTH, NH – For the first time in seven years, Eastern Connecticut State University Softball finishes alone atop the Little East Conference final standings after sweeping Plymouth State University 9-1 in six innings and 7-4 in game two on Saturday afternoon at D&M Park. Earning their eighth outright or share of the LEC regular season title since 2010, the Warriors (34-4, 15-1 LEC) enter the conference tournament as the number one seed and will host the four-day championship starting next Wednesday at Clyde Washburne Field.

Eastern earns a first-round bye and will open the double-elimination tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. against Wednesday's Game 1 winner between No. 4 Castleton University and No. 5 Massachusetts Boston. Eastern's LEC regular-season win total is its highest ever and marks the fifth time in the last 12 non-Covid years that the Warriors have lost one or no LEC games in the regular season. The 2012 team finished a perfect 14-0, with the 2010, 2011 and 2015 squads all closing out at 13-1. All four of those teams swept to LEC tournament titles with four consecutive victories.

Winners of 18 consecutive games to cap off the regular season, the 2022 edition of Eastern Softball now owns the third-longest win streak in program history, surpass the 2011 squad which won 17 straight games during their season.

The red hot hitting senior first baseman Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) capped off her stellar week by carving up the Panthers (12-21, 6-10 LEC) with a 4-for-7 afternoon with a double, triple, and three RBIs. Matyasovsky finished the six-game week with a .632 batting average going 12-for-19 with four home runs and 15 RBIs, four doubles, a triple, scoring seven times, and slugging 1.579 for the week.

Eastern Conn. 9, Plymouth State 1 (F/6)

Senior third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) got the scoring started with an RBI single after the first triple of the season for Matyasovsky to put Eastern ahead by one. A leadoff double by sophomore right-hander Alexis Michon (Montville) helped plated another Warrior run in the second inning when an infield single from junior outfielder Taylor Darby (South Windsor) plated Michon, making it 2-0 in the early going.

Running into some fourth-inning trouble, Michon allowed her only run of the game on a wild pitch after a leadoff single and stolen base from senior catcher Archambault cut the Plymouth State deficit in half, 2-1, before seven unanswered Eastern runs helped them put away the Panthers in six innings.

The seven-run stretch was highlighted by Matyasovsky's hot bat which drove in two of those runs with a fifth-inning RBI single and sixth-inning RBI double during her 3-for-4 performance with 3 RBIs while falling a home run short of the cycle. Darby added two more RBIs to her three-RBI game with a two-run triple in the fifth while graduate outfielder Cassie Woods (Mystic) tacked on an RBI single in the 9-1 victory.

Pitching against her former team for the first time since transferring to Eastern, Alexis Michon earned her 17^th win of the season with her 10^th complete game of the season. Going all six innings, Michon gave up one run on four hits while striking out seven and walking two batters. The right-hander has now struck out 142 batters this season while walking only 19.
 
Eastern Conn. 7, Plymouth State 4

It was déjà vu for the Warrior offense in game two who got on the board first with another RBI single from SanGiovanni after a leadoff walk and stole base by Woods got the outfielder in scoring position for the third baseman. Two walks by senior right-hander Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) opened the door for senior first baseman Madison Harris to give the Panthers their first lead of the doubleheader with a two-out, three-run home run to make it 3-1 after one inning.

Eastern  threatened in the very next inning as two runners would reach making way for graduate outfielder Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) to knot the score back up at three apiece with a two-RBI single before an error by sophomore catcher Abby Kenison during SanGiovanni's at-bat gave the Warriors the lead once again, 4-3.

An RBI single by first-year outfielder Samantha Fancher off of Stoker tied things back up at four in the fifth inning before a three-spot from Eastern in the sixth inning proved to be the difference maker. Two infield singles by Tyrrell and Matyasovsky plated two runs for the Warriors before a SanGiovanni sacrifice fly made it the eventual 7-4 final score. Junior right-hander Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) closed out the final 2 1/3 innings to earn her third win of the season giving up no runs on two hits while striking out two and walking one.

Stealing a pair of bases during the doubleheader, first-year outfield Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) has stolen 24 consecutive bases to start her career. She ties former All-America shortstop Alyssa Hancock '16  for the second-longest streak in program history, seven shy of the all-time record. Hancock stole 24 consecutive bases during the 2015 season.