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MANSFIELD, Conn. – Graduate student Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) went the distance to win both games on the mound against Rhode Island College and played a key role in a pair of walk-off wins as the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team gained a share of first place in the Little East Conference with a 5-4 win in the opener and a 1-0, eight-inning victory in the nightcap Tuesday at Clyde Washburne Field.
 
Vilchez pitched a complete-game eight-hitter in the opener and tied the game in a three-run bottom of the seventh inning with a one-out single, and came back to pitch a complete-game two-hitter in the nightcap and scored the only run of the game on junior Maddi Sauve's (Mansfield) one-out, double down the left field line in the bottom of the eighth inning.
 
Eastern's (18-13-1, 10-4 LEC) sweep of conference-leading Rhode Island College (28-8, 10-4 LEC), coupled with Tuesday splits by the University of Massachusetts Boston (26-10, 9-5 LEC) and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (23-11, 9-5 LEC) gives Eastern a share of the LEC lead with Rhode Island College and the tie-breaker advantage due to the sweep.
 
Saturday, Eastern closes out the LEC regular season with a pair at UMass Boston at 1 p.m., while Rhode Island closes at VTSU Castleton (15-15, 4-8 LEC).
 
Rhode Island, which has lost five of its last eight, led the first game  behind the three-hit pitching of Abby Kidd (16-2) – the conference win leader who entered with a 0.75 ERA -- before the Warriors won it with three runs in the bottom of the seventh on four hits, a walk and infield error. With the bases loaded and one out, Vilchez singled in the tying runs to make it 4-4, and sophomore catcher Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) won it when her sharp single up the middle on a 1-2 pitch easily plated pinch runner Reagan Lalor (Danbury).
 
Vilchez (15-6) and RIC's Ashleigh von der Linden (2-2) were locked in a scoreless dual in the second game before the Warriors won it with one out in the bottom of the eighth when Vilchez single and raced home on Sauve's  game-winning hit, a double down the left field line. In pitching her 15^th complete game in 18 starts this year and recording her fourth shutout, Vilchez allowed only two hits – a one-out single by No. 3 hitter Noelle Simmons in the third and a two-out single in the fourth in becoming the first pitcher to shut out RIC this year. Vilchez fanned three and walked three.
 
Rhode Island broke a 2-2 tie in the first game with single runs in the top of the fourth and sixth before Eastern rallied in the seventh. A leadoff double by Brianna Bailey and a two-out single by Simmons gave RIC the 3-2 lead in the fourth and a leadoff error and Amanda Conti's RBI double pushed the Anchorwomen lead to 4-3.
 
Vilchez and Sauve each had three hits on the day, with Vilchez also reaching three times via walks as the Warriors extended their winning streak against RIC to ten. Vilchez, Sauve and Bowen all drove in two runs, with sophomore shortstop Emma Marelli (Waterford) reaching three times with two walks and a hit and scoring twice and handling nine chances in the field without an error.

Eastern hosts Western New England University Thursday in a non-conference doubleheader at 5 p.m. prior to closing out the regular season at UMass Boston.