MARSHALL, Tex. – Senior second baseman Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) knocked in the game-winning runs with a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning as the No. 17 Eastern Connecticut State University softball team gained a split of a doubleheader with a 5-3 second-game win over Mary Hardin-Baylor University Thursday at Taylor Field on the campus of East Texas Baptist University. The game ended after six innings.
 
For the third time on the trip, Eastern (5-3) managed a split after losing the first game of a doubleheader. Mary Hardin-Baylor (10-5) had won its third straight game with a 6-2 victory over the Warriors in the first game.
 
Eastern closes out play Friday at 5 p.m. ET against host East Texas, ranked No. 8 nationally, and opens at home Thursday with a 3 p.m. non-conference doubleheader against Springfield College at Clyde Washburne Field.
 
Mary Hardin-Baylor U. 6, Eastern Conn. 2
 
Vilchez (2-1) pitched a five-hitter over the first six innings and allowed only two runs after the first but Eastern couldn't recover after No. 3 hitter and team batting leader Izzy Gutierrez drove in two runs with a double as part of a three-run first inning by the War Hawks.
 
Eastern got one back in the bottom of the inning on senior Carley Stoker's (Sandy Creek, NY) leadoff walk and senior Julia SanGiovanni's (East Haven) RBI bunt single and another in the third on doubles by Emma Marelli (Waterford)  and Alyssa Vilchez to cut the gap to 3-2, but could get no closer. After the third, Eastern managed a single by Stoker with one out in the fifth, a leadoff single by sophomore Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) in the sixth and in the seventh trailing by four after there were two out, Marelli walked and Stoker singled but an infield fly ball ended the game.
 
Batting leadoff, Stoker reached three times with two hits and a walk and scored once and sophomore DH Tori Heaphy (East Haven) had two hits, and Marelli reached twice with a hit and walk. Heaphy and junior Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) lead the team with .357 averages, with Remillard having scored a team-high four runs.
 
Eastern Conn. 5, Mary Hardin-Baylor U. 3 (6 inn.)
 
The Warriors were limited to three hits by three MHBU hitters over the first five innings and trailed, 3-2, entering the sixth. Walks to Marelli and senior Taylor Darby (South Windsor) and Remillard's bunt single loaded the bases, and a ground ball by sophomore Sophia Vilchez (Brampton, ON) tied the game. Alyssa Vilchez followed with her two-run double to left-center – her team-leading fifth and sixth RBI of the season.
 
Heaphy and Stoker (3-0) combined on a six-hitter on the mound, with Stoker striking out five and walking one after spelling Heaphy with two out in the fourth after two doubles and an RBI single gave the War Hawks a 2-1 lead. MHBU's three pitchers gave up only five hits but they walked five and hit two batters.
 
SanGiovanni's 18^th career home run leading off the second had staked Heaphy to an early lead, and after the War Hawks went ahead with their two runs in the fourth, Eastern tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Darby's RBI double drove in first-year junior transfer Kaylee Armida (Pine Bush, NY). Armida was running for first-year player Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH), who was hit by a pitch with one out.