WORCESTER, Mass. – In a matchup that featured 2022 national tournament qualifiers Sunday at Rooftop Field, Eastern Connecticut State University and WPI split a lopsided non-conference softball doubleheader, the Warriors scoring six times in the second inning of the first game en route to an 11-3 win, and WPI countering with six runs in the first inning of the nightcap in a 10-0 victory. Both games were halted prior to the seventh inning due to the mercy rule.
With both teams struggling to maintain a .500 record following losses of their top pitcher(s) and several of their top hitters from last year's 30+ win seasons, Eastern (8-6) committed four errors that led to seven unearned runs against WPI (4-10). Senior lefty
Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) and senior righty
Carly Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) did not allow an earned run in the opening victory that came on the heels of a home sweep of Springfield College at mid-week where the Warriors played perfect defense.
While the fourth-inning error that set up WPI pinch hitter Gabi Cerbo's bases-clearing double did not affect the ultimate outcome of the first game, three errors in the second game provided for four unearned runs. In that second game, senior Sophia Togneri – WPI's second pitcher behind graduated 25-game winner Katie Martin last year – spun a two-hitter and allowed only four baserunners in handing Eastern its first shutout of the season.
In the second game, the Engineers batted around and scored three times in the first inning on five hits – including a two-run home run by cleanup hitter Alicia Salva – and a sacrifice fly, and were aided by an infield error and a walk. Togne (3-5) never allowed more than one baserunner in an inning in the five-inning contest. She got an inning-ending strikeout after senior third baseman
Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) doubled with two out in the bottom of the first and induced a comebacker to end the fourth after a two-out single.
Making her seventh start of the year, Vilchez (4-2) allowed three hits and two walks with two strikeouts in the first five innings of the opener before Stoker preserved the win with a scoreless sixth inning.
Stoker and SanGiovanni each had three of Eastern's 12 hits on the day – raising their team-leading batting averages to .439 and .359, respectively. SanGiovanni, junior rightfielder
Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) and first-year sophomore transfer
Ally Gruca (Lancaster, MA) and first-year player
Emily Marelli (Waterford) all drove in two runs in the first-game rout. Marelli drove in her runs in the six-run second inning with a double and SanGiovanni followed two batters later by driving in the final two runs with a two-out single. Remillard drove in the second run of the second inning with a ground ball and also had an RBI single in a two-run fourth, and Gruca plated both runs in the third inning with a double that made it 8-0.
Stoker appeared in both ends of the doubleheader in relief, striking out three without a walk and giving up four hits and two earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. As a pitcher, Stoker has appeared in 12 of the team's 14 games this year – all in relief – with a 4-0 record and 2.22 ERA and 26 strikeouts and only ten walks in 28 1/3 innings.
Eastern visits the University of Hartford – a newcomer to Division III -- in a 1 p.m. non-conference doubleheader Saturday. The Warriors are 8-0 all-time against the Hawks, with the clubs last meeting in 1986 when Eastern easily won, 8-0 and 11-3, at Hartford en route to a second straight national championship.
