NCAA Selection Show, Monday, 1 p.m.

MANSFIELD, Conn. – It was sweet revenge for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth softball team, which avenged two regular-season one-run losses to Eastern Connecticut State University and a third-round Little East Conference tournament loss to the Warriors to sweep the top-seeded hosts, 4-3 and 1-0 in 12 innings Saturday at Clyde Washburne Field and win its first conference tournament title.
 
On the final day, second-seeded UMass Dartmouth (30-12) got nearly identical complete-game, seven-hit, seven-strikeout, three-walk pitching performances from Jill Richards and Kaitlyn Shirshac to stun three-time defending conference Eastern (28-9), which entered play Saturday ranked 24^th nationally and riding win streaks of 12 straight this season at home, 20 in a row overall and 13 straight over the last four seasons of LEC tournament competition.
 
UMass Dartmouth had reached the tournament final for the first time last year but was mercied by Eastern, 11-0, in the final.
 
After the Corsairs survived an Eastern rally in the bottom of the seventh inning of the opener Saturday (the apparent tying run negated when the Warriors failed to re-enter their designated player properly) to force a winner-take-all final game, Shirsac and senior Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) staged a dramatic pitching dual in the nightcap before UMass Dartmouth won when tournament Most Outstanding Player Larissa Piessens beat the throw home of Eastern shortstop Emma Marelli  on RaeLynn Perregaux' one-out ground ball in the hole.
 
Dyonna Rodas led off the winning rally by reaching safely when her sun-aided routine fly ball to right field fell safely.  Piessens then reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch with only one out. On a 3-1 pitch, RaeLynn Perregaux chopped a ground ball into the hole. Marelli gloved the ball moving to her right and had only one option, throwing home too late to catch  Piessens.
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Shirshac (15-4), who didn't survive the fourth inning in UMass' 7-3 second-round loss to Eastern on Friday, was magnificent Saturday. The five-footer tossed her sixth shutout of the year, allowing six singles and a double with seven strikeouts and three walks. It was only the second time this year that Eastern was shut out, first since March 26. In 12 innings, Shirshac gave up more than one hit in an inning only once, keeping the Warriors hitless over the final three innings.
 
Eastern, which posted its second unbeaten LEC season this year and was the first team to win all 16 of its conference games, managed to put only seven runners in scoring position against Shirsac. Junior Sarah Remillard (Grafton) was Eastern's only runner to reach third base when she reached on a wild pitch while striking out leading off the tenth, was sacrificed to second by Vilchez, advanced to third on a ground ball, but was left there when Shirshac got an inning-ending infield popup.
 
Richards won the first game Saturday with her third tournament complete-game triumph. The Corsairs tied the game in the third without the aid of a hit, went ahead 3-1 with two runs in the fifth on RBI safeties from Dyonna Rodas and Perregaux, and added a pad run in the seventh on Piessens' two-out single, and took a 4-1 lead into the seventh.
 
Eastern was limited to three hits over the first six innings, but pushed across two in the seventh. Alexa Boone opened with a single and No. 9 hitter Maddi Sauve (Mansfield)  tripled her in to make it 4-2. Sauve came across on Vilchez' single to center to make it 4-2. After senior Julia Sangiovanni's (East Haven) single to center advanced Vilchez to third, the Warriors hit an apparent tying sacrifice fly to right – where Sydney Menz made a spectacular diving catch in foul trouble. The game-tying drive was later negated, however, because Eastern did not official re-enter the batter.
 
Piessens batted .412 (7-of-17) en route to Most Outstanding Player honors. She scored five runs, drove in three, stole three bases and had nine putouts and nine assists. Rodas led the Corsairs in five games with a .450 batting mark (9-of-20) with five runs scored, team-leading six RBI and four extra-base hits. Richards allowed six earned runs and ten walks in 21 innings, fanning 16 with a 2.00 ERA.
 
Having now reached safely in 22 straight games, Remillard reached 11 times with five hits (.385 average), five walks and a hit-by-pitch. She also stole two bases and had eight putouts and an assist in right field. Sauve batted .400 (4-of-10) with seven total bases. Vilchez had a 0.37 ERA in 19 innings and senior righty Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) -- who no-hit UMass through six innings in Friday's win -- fanned 14 in 11 1/3 innings. Each pitcher split two decisions.

Ranked second in the NCAA Region II, Eastern expects to receive a bid to its 24th NCAA Division III tournament when the entire field is announced on Monday.