MANSFIELD, Conn. – The top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University softball team scored multiple runs in all four of its at-bats and rode through the Little East Conference softball tournament without allowing a run for the second time in three years, defeating third-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 11-0 in five innings in the first game of the championship round Saturday afternoon at Clyde Washburne Field. Once-beaten UMass Dartmouth would have needed two wins over Eastern to claim its first tournament title.
 
Ranked No. 4 nationally, Eastern (37-4) extended its LEC tournament winning streak to 11  in capturing its seventh tournament title in the last 12 years. Eastern has won three championships in a row twice in that span, with the title game outcome Saturday rivaling a 10-1, six-inning win over second-seeded Western Connecticut State University in 2015.
 
Eastern won its 21^st straight game by unloading a blistering, season-high 17-hit attack, with the heart of the order collecting ten hits – four for extra bases --  driving in seven runs and scoring six. In all, six players had at least two hits.
 
The Corsairs had reached the championship round for the first time in program history by winning three of their first four games, shutting out fourth-seeded Castleton University, 4-0, in an elimination game Friday night to remain alive after losing to Eastern earlier in the day.
 
Senior Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY), batting only .257 on a team ranked among the national leaders at .347 – blasted her fifth and sixth home runs of the year, driving in three runs and scoring twice in only her fourth start in left field this year. Stoker was last year's LEC Pitcher-of-the-Year. Senior first baseman Brooke Matyasovsky (Orange) and senior third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) stroked back-to-back two-out doubles – SanGiovanni plating two with the drive – to highlight a two-run second inning that pushed the lead to 5-0.
 

The Warriors put the game away and improved to 14-1 at home this year by scoring four runs in the third on five hits that ballooned the lead to 9-0.  The first four batters of the inning reached safely, with sophomore DP Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) driving in the first two with a single and two more coming home on senior rightfielder Alexis Tyrrell's (Torrington) single.
 
After senior All-America Morgan Bolduk (Vernon) one-hit UMass Dartmouth (33-10-1) with ten strikeouts Friday morning in a battle of tournament unbeatens, sophomore Alexis Michon (Montville) followed with a one-hitter of her own Saturday, fanning four and walking one for her 16^th straight win and 19^th in 20 decisions since transferring from Plymouth State University, where she netted LEC Rookie-of-the-Year honors last year.
 
Bolduk (1-0) and Michon (2-0) split 19 tournament innings on the mound, fanning 23 and walking seven and limiting three opponents to a .113 batting average.
 
Among a number of viable candidates, Matyasovsky, a first-team All-America last year, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. She was 7-for-11 with 12 total bases, six RBI and two runs scored. Junior second baseman Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) – last year's LEC tournament MVP – was 7-for-8 with two doubles, with SanGiovanni 5-for-11 with 11 total bases and three RBI. Michon struck out 14 and allowed only three singles in 9 1/3 innings in winning both of her starts.

Eastern earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament awarded the LEC tournament champion. It will be the program's 23^rd NCAA appearance since 1982.