Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
PLYMOUTH, N.H. --  Senior Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) pitched a complete-game eight-hitter in the opener, then came on to record all 21 outs in relief of the nightcap as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team swept Plymouth State University, 7-2, 10-6 in Little East Conference action Saturday at D&M Park.
 
With four conference games remaining, Eastern's (16-13-1, 8-4) sweep, coupled with a pair of losses by 2023 LEC tournament champion University of Massachusetts Dartmouth moves the Warriors into a three-way tie for second in the conference with UMass Dartmouth and the University of Massachusetts Boston, which was idle in conference play Saturday.
 
Now 8-0 in the conference, Vilchez (13-6) was backed by Eastern's four-run top of the first in the first game, and eased to her 13^th complete game this year in 16 starts. She fanned three and walked five and was backed by perfect defense.
 
Eastern scored all of its runs in the fourth inning of the nightcap, sending 15 batters to the plate and collecting ten of its game total of 12 hits. The Warriors opened the inning with five straight hits, with junior Maddi Sauve (Mansfield) and first-year player Kaley Laird (Bristol) each recording two hits and scoring two run in the inning. Junior Maggie Rubeck (Easthampton, MA) drove in the first two runs with a single.
 
In that second game, Vilchez relieved senior starter Emma Sands (Danbury) with no one out and two runners aboard and one run in, and went the rest of the way. Vilchez got two strikeouts and a ground out to get out of the first inning. Vilchez allowed three earned runs on six hits and eight walks while fanning six.
 
On the day, Vilchez reached seven times with four hits (including a triple), two walks and a hit-by-pitch, and stole two bases.  She scored three runs in the doubleheader and improved her team-leading batting average to .433. Rubeck, Sauve, Laird, first-year player Taylor Lathrop (Enfield), graduate student Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) and sophomore Emma Marelli (Waterford) all contributed two hits in Eastern's 19-hit afternoon. Lathrop drove in three runs with a two-out double in Eastern's four-run first inning in the opener.
 
Already the program career leader in doubles, SanGiovanni drove in one run in each game to move to within two RBI of setting a program career record of 158.
 
With only its second LEC doubleheader sweep of the year, the Warriors extended their winning streak to 12 straight over Plymouth (13-19, 3-9 LEC), which had won four straight entering play.
 
Eastern hosts conference-leader Rhode Island College (28-6, 10-2 LEC) Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. for a doubleheader and visits UMass Boston (25-9, 8-4 LEC) May 4 on the final day of the regular season.