SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – No. 8 hitter Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) tripled in two runs and No. 9 hitter Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) plated the tying run with an infield ground ball to highlight a three-run seventh inning as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team rallied for a 4-4 tie in the second game of a non-conference doubleheader with Springfield College Friday afternoon at Potter Field.

In the first game, graduate righty Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) did not allow an earned run in a complete-game effort, but Springfield (9-2-1) pushed across the only run of the game on a sacrifice fly  in the bottom of the eighth inning, snapping Eastern's (7-4-1) five-game winning streak in its northern-opener.

Eastern trailed 4-1 in the top of the seventh inning of the second game but bunched three of its eight hits off Ashley Pugli to score three runs before the game was called due to darkness after Vilchez, in relief, left the go-ahead run on second base by getting a swinging strikeout and an outfield fly ball.

 In the seventh, junior Maddi Sauve (Mansfield) and first-year outfielder Kaley Laird (Bristol) opened with singles off Pugli, and with one out, Bowen recorded her first career triple to make it 4-3, and Baker followed with an infield ground ball that sent home Bowen with the tying run.

In the opener, Vilchez allowed only the one run in the bottom of the eighth during the international tie-breaker inning. She allowed only seven singles and walked five without a strikeout. The Warriors had eight hits – three doubles – off complete-game winner Amelia DeRos, but stranded  nine runners.

In two games, Laird had three hits (two doubles) and Bowen added a double and triple. Matching Bowen with two hits were Sauve, Vilchez, senior Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA), junior Maggie Rubeck (Easthampton, MA) and sophomore Emma Marelli (Waterford). Rubeck extended her hitting streak to eight with a hit in each game while Laird extended her hitting streak to six and Bowen to five with at least one in each game.