GORHAM, Maine – The only softball program to win every Little East Conference regular-season game in a  season, Eastern Connecticut State University performed the feat for the second time and ended its regular season on an 18-game winning streak with 1-0, 3-1 conference wins over the University of Southern Maine Saturday afternoon at the USM Softball Stadium.
 
Having previously guaranteed itself its seventh outright regular-season title in 13 years (in addition to three shared titles), Eastern will host the six-team, double-elimination Little East tournament from Wednesday through Saturday at Clyde Washburne Field. Ranked 25^th nationally, top-seeded Eastern (26-8, 16-0 LEC) and second-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (25-10, 12-4 LEC) receive first-round tournament byes. The Warriors open the tournament Thursday at noon against the winner of Wednesday's first game between No. 4 seed Castleton University and No. 5 seed Rhode Island College.
 

With its third regular-season sweep of Southern Maine (19-19, 10-6 LEC) in the last four years, Eastern becomes the first Little East team to win 16 games in the regular season since the conference went to a 16-game schedule in 2019 (there was no season in 2020 due to Covid). The Warriors also went undefeated in a 14-game schedule in 2012 and went on to a four-game LEC tournament sweep.
 
The 18-game winning streak is the fifth-longest in program history for Eastern, which recorded its 11^th sweep of the season, ninth straight. The Huskies end the regular season on a four-year losing streak. They had swept their last three conference doubleheaders.
 
Saturday marked the third time in less than three weeks that senior righty Carley Stoker (Sandy Creek, NY) pitched a complete-game win in the first game of a doubleheader and then came on to record a save in the nightcap. Stoker (14-1) won her tenth straight game and 35^th game in 39 career decisions with a five-hitter in the opener, then struck out four over the final two hitless innings for her fourth save of the year -- seventh of her career – in the nightcap. A strikeout of the leadoff batter in the seventh gave Stoker at least 100 in a season for the second time in her career. She is ranked fifth all-time with 258 strikeouts and fifth all-time with an average of 6.92 strikeouts per game.
 
In the first game, Eastern scored an unearned run in the top of the seventh and Stoker pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to spoil a complete-game four-hitter by USM's Lauren Merrill (10-8), who struck out five and walked only one. The only run of the game came on a two-out infield error after senior leftfielder Taylor Darby (South Windsor) singled with one out  and stole second.
 
In the second game, senior righty Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) won her ninth straight decision, 11^th in 13 decisions this year and 16^th in 18 decisions in her career, striking out seven without a walk and allowing only one unearned run on four hits through five innings. With Eastern leading, 3-1 in the sixth, a leadoff single and two errors loaded the bases but Stoker got three outs on a line drive to right, ground ball to third that forced a runner at the plate, and an inning-ending called strikeout.
 
Junior utility player Sarah Remillard's (Grafton, MA) run-scoring double with two out gave Eastern a 1-0 lead in the third and the Warriors made it 3-0 in the fifth on consecutive RBI singles by Remillard and Vilchez after first-year shortstop Emma Marelli (Waterford) had drawn an inning-opening walk.
 
Darby had a hit in each game to extend her hitting streak to ten, while Remillard reached once in the opener and twice in the nightcap and has now reached base in her last 18 games, coinciding with the team's current winning streak. Remillard's two RBI in the second game gives her a team-high six multiple-RBI games. Remillard and Vilchez each had a double and three total hits in the doubleheader. 

Eastern won both games despite managing only eight hits: three by Vilchez and Remillard and two by Darby.