Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 TUCSON, Ariz. – The defense was solid and the pitching sufficient, but the bats were stone cold as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team dropped a pair on opening day, 3-1 against Salve Regina University and 2-1 against #24 RPI Sunday morning at Lincoln Park.

The defense played errorlessly behind graduate righty Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton) and junior lefty Alexa Boone (Middletown), who gave up a combined 15 hits but made the big pitches when necessary by stranding 11 runners on the day (seven against RPI).

The opposing starting pitches both went the distance and allowed only five hits in total. Salve Regina's (1-0) Alex Kelly (1-0) fanned four of the first six batters she faced – nine in all – mowing down the first nine batters and facing only three batters over the minimum over seven innings. She pitched a two-hitter, giving up a one-out single to sophomore shortstop Emma Marelli (Waterford) in the fourth and Vilchez' one-out single in the seventh.

Marelli scored the team's only run in the fourth against Salve when an outfield error allowed her to reach third on a single and a two-base error, and Vilchez sent her home with a suicide squeeze bunt. In the seventh, Vilchez reached second base with her single and an outfield error but the Warriors stranded the tying and winning runs in scoring position when Kelly got a game-ending four-pitch strikeout.

Cooke of RPI (7-0)  tossed a three-hitter and retired 13 of the final 14 batters she faced, giving up only a one-out walk in the seventh in that stretch to senior righfielder Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA), but left the runner on first by saving her only two strikeouts of the game to retire Eastern pinch hitters.

Against Salve, Vilchez (0-1) went the distance, with five of the seven hits she allowed coming when the Seahawks scored all of their runs in the fifth, the big blow a two-run bases-loaded single by leadoff hitter Morganti Bello. The Warriors avoided further damage in the inning, however, when junior centerfielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) easily threw out Bello trying to score from second with a strike to sophomore catcher Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) on cleanup hitter Maddie Capetta's two-out bases loaded single.

Against RPI, Vilchez kept the deficit at one run with 2 2/3 innings of perfect pitching (retiring all eight batters she faced) after taking over for Boone (0-1), who pitched into the fourth inning in her first career start. Vilchez needed only six pitches (all strikes) to record the final two outs of the fourth and strand the bases loaded, fanning No. 2 hitter Evann McDowell on an 0-2 pitch and getting a ground ball force out from junior second baseman Maddi Sauve (Mansfield) to Marelli covering second leave the bases jammed.

After Eastern went ahead with a run in the second against RPI, the Engineers countered with the tying run in the second and go-ahead run in the third, but Boone stranded five in those two innings to prevent further damage before Vilchez came on to strand three more in the fourth.

 Eastern scored first against RPI. Sauve doubled to left-center leading off the second, moved to third on Remillard's sacrifice bunt and crossed the plate on junior first baseman Maggie Rubeck's (East Hampton, MA) suicide squeeze. Cleanup hitter Gabby Comeau's leadoff triple beyond the dive of Remillard in right and a passed ball tied the game for RPI in the second, and the Engineers pushed across the go-ahead run in the third when they collected three hits off Boone, with No. 3 hitter Callista Adorno's one-out double over the head of first-year leftfielder Julia Boya (Coventry) plating Erin Askins, who had dumped a single into center field to open the inning. Fine defensive plays limited the damage in that inning, when Boone scrambled to get the second out at first base on a sizzling comebacker that bounced off her leg, and graduate third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) snared Liv Vizzini's screecher with a perfectly-timed leap that left two runners in scoring position.

On Monday in Tucson, Eastern faces Claremont-Mudd-Scipps Colleges at 4:30 p.m. ET and Dickinson College at 6:30 p.m. ET