MANSFIELD, Conn. – Nursing a 1-0 lead, top-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University sent ten batters to the plate and scored seven runs on five hits and three walks to defeat fourth-seeded Castleton University, 8-0, on the second day of the 2023 Little East Conference double elimination softball tournament Thursday afternoon at Clyde Washburne Field.
In winning its first game in the tournament this year and its 12
th straight over four years, three-time defending champion Eastern (27-8) advances in the winners' bracket Friday at noon against second-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (27-11). Both top seeds drew first-round byes.
Coming off an opening 2-0 win over fifth-seeded Rhode Island College Wednesday, Castleton (19-15) dropped into an elimination game Friday at 6 p.m.
Leading 1-0, Eastern got a two-run home run from senior third baseman
Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) in the fifth, and with one out, the final seven batters reached safely on either a hit, walk or error to record its 19
th straight win this year. The game ended when winning pitcher
Alyssa Vilchez' (Brampton, ON) potential sacrifice fly to left was dropped, pushing across the seventh and eighth runs which ended the contest due to the mercy rule and giving the pitcher her 12
th win in 14 decisions this year.
Junior leadoff hitter
Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) reached three times on two hits and a walk (the 19
th straight game that she has reached safely), with Vilchez, like Remillard, singling and doubling. Senior
Taylor Darby (South Windsor) scored twice after walking and singling.
Vilchez recorded all but the final out. She was lifted in favor of senior righty
Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) with two out in the top of the fifth and the bases clear and Stoker got a called strikeout to record her fifth save that ties the program record set by four-time All-America Molly Rathbun in 2011. Vilchez allowed singles in the second and third innings only, fanning two and hitting a batter.
In a scoreless game with a runner on second in the third inning, Stoker made the play of the game (and possibly of the season) in left field when she dove toward the left field line to snag a sinking line drive off the bat of cleanup hitter Allie Almond and deny what was potentially a two-run inside-the-park home run.
