DANBURY, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University softball team got back-to-back complete game pitching performances for the first time this year and the Warriors scored ten runs in their final two at-bats in an opening win and went on to 12-4, 5-2 Little East Conference victories over Western Connecticut State University Friday afternoon at the Westside Softball Field.
After Eastern (10-8, 2-0 LEC) scored ten runs in its final two at-bats in the opener on eight hits and three errors to erase a one-run deficit, the defending conference champion Warriors broke a tie in the second game with a run in the fourth, and added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings in sweeping WestConn (12-12, 0-4 LEC) for the third straight season.
In her second start of the season in the first game, senior righty
Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) struck out a career-high 12 with three walks for her fourth win in five decisions this year, and sophomore DH
Tori Heaphy (East Haven) and first-year sophomore transfer first baseman
Ally Gruca (Lancaster, MA) each drove in runs with hits in both the sixth and seventh innings.
In the second game, senior righty
Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) threw her second complete game of the year to give the staff its first complete games on the same day. Vilchez (5-2) fanned five and walked one.
Heaphy, who had eight hits and three RBI in 13 games leading up to Friday, was 6-for-8 with a walk, four doubles and a home run, three RBI and three runs scored in the doubleheader, while Vilchez was 5-for-8 with a triple, two RBI and two runs scored to lead Eastern's 24-hit attack. On the day, ten of the team's hit were good for extra bases.
First-year shortstop and leadoff hitter
Emma Marelli (Waterford) reached base five times with four hits (including a triple) and a walk, scored five runs and drove in one; junior rightfielder
Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) reached base six times with three hits (including a double) and three walks and scored twice. Senior third baseman
Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) extended her on-base streak to nine with a walk each game. She drove in two runs in the first game with a ground ball in the five-run sixth and suicide squeeze bunt in the seventh.
Western took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning of the first game on a walk and two hits before Eastern pushed across five unearned runs in the top of the sixth on five hits and a costly infield error. Stoker and Heaphy had back-to-back doubles, Heaphy's driving in a run, and Gruca followed with an RBI single. In the seventh, consecutive infield errors opened the inning and Stoker, Heaphy (double) and Gruca (double) followed SanGiovanni's sacrifice bunt with run-scoring hits.
Eastern broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth inning of the second game, going ahead for good on Heaphy's second home run of the season leading off the inning. The Warriors added an insurance run in the sixth on Heaphy's leadoff double, Gruca's sacrifice bunt and senior catcher
Grace Leone's (Brick, NJ) RBI single, and tacked on one additional run in the seventh on opening singles by Marelli and Vilchez (bunt), SanGiovanni's sacrifice bunt, and Stoker's sacrifice fly.
Eastern hosts the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Tuesday at 3:30 in a Little East doubleheader.
