MANSFIELD, Conn. – Graduate All-America centerfielder Cassie Woods (Mystic) drove in junior second baseman Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) with a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team to a 1-0 win over Randolph-Macon College in the first game of the best-of-three NCAA Division III Mansfield, CT Super Regional Friday afternoon at Clyde Washburne Field.
 
With its 26^th win in its last 27 games, No. 3 nationally-ranked Eastern (42-5) moves within a victory of qualifying for its second national tournament in the last three non-Covid seasons. Now 15-1 at home, Eastern hosts No. 16 nationally-ranked Randolph-Macon (35-10) in the second game of the best-of-three Saturday at 10 a.m. One Eastern win Saturday advances the Warriors to next week's national tournament at Salem, VA. The Yellow Jackets, who, like Eastern, reached the national tournament in 2019, need to give Eastern its first two-game losing streak of the season in order to win the Super Regional and advance.
 

In a pitching matchup of two potential NFCA All-Americas, Eastern sophomore Alexis Michon (Montville) and R-MC freshman Gracie Ellis combined for 21 strikeouts and allowed only ten hits (all singles), two walks and a hit-by-pitch. Michon (22-1) won her 19^th straight game when the left-handed-hitting Woods stroked the first pitch she saw from Ellis cleanly into center field and Vilchez scored standing up for the only run of the game.
 
Also a left-handed hitter, Vilchez opened the eighth with a single to left that Amanda Lanyon couldn't control when she dropped to her knees to field the line drive. Batting eighth, senior catcher Carolyn Biel (Wallingford) then sacrificed Vilchez to second and after Ellis got a fly ball to center for the second out, Woods smacked a first-pitch single off Ellis for the second time in the game.
 
Ellis, like Michon the MVP of her respective regional tournament last weekend, became the first pitcher this year to strike out as many as ten Eastern batters. She spaced four singles until the eighth inning and ultimately threw 98 of her 128 pitches for strikes.
 
Michon, who threw 90 of her 136 pitches for strikes, equaled the fourth-most wins in a season in program history, but not before surviving several anxious moments. Ultimately, she pitched a four-hitter and struck out double-digit batters (11) for the sixth time this year. She walked two and hit a batter but stranded seven runners and got flawless defense from her defense as the Warriors, ranked third nationally in fielding percentage, played without an error for the seventh straight game and 29th time this year.
 
The Yellow Jackets threatened twice to score the first run in the final three innings. In the sixth, first-year shortstop Maggie Rubeck (Easthampton, MA), a .981 fielder, got a force at third for the second out of the inning while making a difficult play to her right, with her hurried throw getting to senior third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) just ahead of Sami Davidson. Michon then escaped the bases-loaded jam when Naomi Sadler, running between second and third, interfered with Rubeck attempting to field a ground ball off the bat of cleanup hitter Kayla Davis for the final out.
 
With the game still scoreless in the top of the eighth, senior All-America first baseman Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) made a head-first dive of a foul ball near the Yellow Jacket dugout for the second out, but Michon then gave up an infield single to Sadler, who proceeded to steal second, and a walk before ending the inning with a first-pitch pop to Vilchez at second.
 
Woods and Vilchez were the only players in the game with two hits. The multiple-hit game was the team-leading 27^th of the year for Woods, the team-leader with a .493 batting average. Woods, who has already set a season record with 62 singles, became the second player in program history with 70 hits, one shy of the season record set by fellow Fitch High School alumnus and All-America Arielle Cooper in 2013.