UNION, N.J. –  Junior Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) and sophomore Alexis Michon (Montville) combined on a four-hitter and senior catcher Carolyn Biel (Wallingford) had a two-run double in a three-run second inning as the No. 3 nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University softball team forced a deciding game in the NCAA Division III Union, NJ Regional with a 5-1 win over host Kean University Sunday afternoon at Cougar Field.
 
Top-seeded Eastern (40-5) faces second-seeded Kean (32-9) Monday at 10 a.m. in a winner-take-all championship game, with the winner advancing to this coming weekend's best-of-three Super Regional. A winner of 24 of its last 25 games, Eastern would need to inflict Kean with its first two-game losing streak of the year if it is to complete its run through the losers' bracket and advance to the Super Regional for the second time in three years.
 
The Union, NJ Regional winner will face the winner of the Ashland, VA Regional this coming Friday and Saturday, with that champion advancing to the national tournament May 26-31 at Salem, VA.  Top-seeded and No. 16 nationallly-ranked Randolph-Macon College (35-9) out of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) defeated MIT, 3-1, in that regional's championship game Sunday afternoon to advance. The Yellow Jackets were one of 19 at-large qualifiers to the 62-team NCAA pool. The defending conference tournament champion and second-seeded Yellow Jackets split four games in their conference tournament two weeks ago at the James Moyer Complex in Salem, Va., the site of this year's national tournament.
 

Eastern and Randolph-Macon both qualified for the 2019 national tournament at Tyler, TX, where the Warriors finished in a tie for third and R-M bowing out by losing its first two games by two runs each. The Yellow Jackets defeated Christopher Newport College twice on the Captains' home field by 4-3 scores in the best-of-three 2019 Super Regional after losing the opener. Christopher Newport is the unanimous No. 1-ranked team in Division III this year.
 
Eastern, which has now won as many as 40 games in a season for the second time in the program's 46-year history, earned a shot at Kean Monday after routing third-seeded Alfred University, 10-0 in five innings earlier in the morning. Kean had beaten Eastern, 3-2 Saturday to become the tournament's only unbeaten team and send the Warriors to the losers' bracket, needing three victories in order to win the program's 15^th regional championship.
 
Eastern had been scheduled to play Alfred Saturday afternoon in the losers' bracket final but the game was postponed to Sunday morning due to rain. The postponement meant that Eastern will play Kean on separate days rather than needing to sweep the Cougars on one day to win the title.
 
Vilchez (4-0) left the game for a pinch runner after injuring herself with a hustle double in the fifth. Michon, who had thrown a one-hitter earlier in the day against Alfred, was summoned to protect a 5-1 lead by pitching the final three scoreless innings for her first save in her two-year collegiate career.  Michon gave up one hit and walked one while strikeout out five, ending the game with a pair of swinging strikeouts.
 
Eastern scored the only runs it needed in a three-run second inning on Vilchez's double which brought home pinch runner Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) and Biel's two-run double to right center that plated Vilchez and senior leftfielder Carly Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY), who had reached on an infield single. Stoker provided insurance with her seventh home run of the season – a two-run blast that volowed Vilchez's inning-opening walk – that pushed the lead to 5-0.
 
First-team all-conference junior righty Heather Clevenger (15-2), who beat Eastern, 3-2, Saturday with a complete-game six-hitter, did not survive Eastern's three-run second inning this time. Biel's two-run double ended the day of Clevenger in favor of junior righty Annabella Marino, who was charged with two runs on four hits and four walks over the final 5 2/3 innings.
 
In addition to doubling twice, walking and scoring twice, Vilchez gave up only one run on the mound on three hits and no walks with a strikeout. She retired the first six batters in order before a sun-aided infield single and a bunt single in the third threatened Eastern's three-run lead. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position, but senior third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) – the Little East Conference Player-of-the-Year – gloved consecutive hot smashes and threw across the diamond accurately to retire the batters and end the threat.
 
Trailing 5-0, the Cougars finally broke through in the fourth on an opening infield single, two ground balls and a wild pitch, but Vilchez got Sarah Zengel on a called strikeout on her final pitch of the afternoon.
 
Graduate All-America centerfielder and leadoff batter Cassie Woods (Mystic) had two more hits – legging out two balls that never left the infield – as did Vilchez and Stoker. Biel walked twice in addition to her two-run double, while Baker extended her career-opening streak to 26 consecutive stolen bases when she stole second base pinch running for SanGiovanni in the second inning and scored her 21^st run of the year on Vilchez' double to give Eastern a 1-0 lead.

Although she was unable to add to her season (21) and career (53) records for hit-by-pitch, SanGiovanni was able to extend her on-base streak to 25 games with her second-inning single that set up the first run of the game.
 
The heart of Kean's order – 2-3-4 hitters Jean Majorzak, Eliza Filus and Gabriella Fredette – reached only once (on an infield single), with Woods robbing Fredette of extra bases with a highlight-reel catch in right-center field in the sixth. Majorczak and Filus are both .400 hitters while Fredette was her conference's Player-of-the-Year this year and Filus the Rookie-of-the-Year. In addition to Woods and SanGiovanni, Michon also contributed a defensive gem when she threw out the first batter that she faced leading off the fifth – Isabella Polash – when she came off the mound for a diving stop of a ground ball to her left and threw the runner out from her knees.
 

NOTABLE:
In four regional games, the Warriors are batting .306 with a team 1.96 ERA and a 1.000 fielding average... Woods is batting .563 (9-of-16), with Michon at .444 (4-of-9)... Michon is 1-0 with a save and a 1.02 ERA and 17 strikeouts and has not allowed an extra-base hit in 13 2/3 innings... heading into Monday's championship game, Woods' 66 hits rank fifth in a season, five shy of her former high school coach's (Arielle Cooper) record... Woods' 58 singles are a season record, as are Matyasovsky's 17 doubles and 58 RBI... Woods' 54 runs rank third (seven shy of Cooper's record) and Matyasovsky's 33 extra-base hits are one behind Cooper's record... in this tournament, Matyasovsky tied her personal mark of 15 home runs in a season, which are one shy of Cooper's record... Matyasovsky's 15th home run also tied Cooper's career record of 40... SanGiovanni will leave Eastern with season and career records for HBP... often overshadowed by her All-America teammates, graduate rightfielder Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) had quietely carved out one of the top careers in program history... after splitting time in right field and at second base early in her career, Tyrrell has proven herself as one of the most reliable outfielders in program history, having commited only one error on over 100 chances with 14 assists as the everyday rightfielder the last two years... Tyrrell is the active career leader in hits (179), ranking sixth all-time in that category, five behind four-time All-America Molly Rathbun for fifth place... Matyasovsky is the program's all-time leader in RBI (152) and slugging (.791), while Woods (.511) is the current all-time leader in batting average, with SanGiovanni (.402) fourth and Matyasovsky (.389) among the Top Ten... in addition to sharing the career HR record, Matyasovsky is second in doubles (45), three off the record, and is five behind Cooper's career record of 91 extra-base hits... senior righty Morgan Bolduk (Vernon), the dominant pitcher for Eastern during the 2019 run to the national tournament and a possible starter in Monday's championship game, is the all-time leader in least walks per game (1.02) and her 18 career shutouts rank fourth all-time...