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BOSTON, Mass. – While all eyes were focused on Little East Conference softball co-leaders Eastern Connecticut State University and Rhode Island College jockeying for the No. 1 seed of the LEC tournament on the final day of competition Saturday, it was the University of Massachusetts Boston that snuck in the back door, walking off the Warriors twice and claiming its first regular-season title and No. 1 tournament seed.
 
Eastern and Rhode Island entered play sharing first place in the conference, with the Warriors holding the tie-breaker over the Anchorwomen due to a pair of walk-off victories at Clyde Washburne Field on Tuesday. With RIC losing the first game of its twinbill at VTSU Castleton (on the way to also being swept) prior to the completion of Eastern's first game with UMass Boston, one Eastern win over the Beacons would have secured the No. 1 seed and hosting privileges for the LEC tournament, which gets underway Wednesday.
 
After walking off  three wins this past week, Eastern (19-16-1) was walked off twice against UMass Boston (28-10), 3-1 in eight innings and 3-2, falling from a possible No. 1 seed to the No. 3 seed in the tournament, which will be hosted by UMass Boston for the first time. With the top two tournament seeds earning first-round tournament byes, Eastern will need to win one additional game than top seed UMass Boston and No. 2 seed University of Massachusetts Dartmouth if it is to claim its fourth LEC tournament title in five years.
 
In the final regular-season standings, UMass Boston (11-5) finishes one game ahead of Eastern, UMass Dartmouth and Rhode Island College, all at 10-6. UMass Dartmouth gains No. 2 seed based upon its regular-season sweep of UMass Boston.
 
The Warriors will play the second game on Wednesday (tentative time of 12:30 p.m.) in the four-day, six-team double-elimination tournament against sixth-seeded VTSU Castleton (7-9 LEC), which shocked RIC twice by a run Saturday to greatly aid UMass  Boston's regular-season title hopes. A win advances them to a Thursday game against UMass Dartmouth (in a re-match of last year's championship round, won by UMD) in another tentative start of 12:30, while a loss drops them into an elimination game later Wednesday, tentatively at 3 p.m.
 
While the Beacons entered play Saturday against Eastern having won 13 of 14 at home this year, UMB had lost 12 in a row against the Warriors and was 0-23 against Eastern on its home field. UMass's winning ways at home did not change Saturday, but its home (and overall) futility against Eastern did.
 
Eastern was held without an earned run and to ten hits (eight singles) by the LEC's No. 1 (statistically) pitching staff of Bri Melchionda (13-2), a senior,  and graduate student Jacqueline Cherry (11-4), each of whom pitched complete-game five-hitters. Melchionda fanned 12 and walked two and Cherry struck out two and walked three, the duo stranding 17 Eastern baserunners.
 
In the first game, Eastern's inability to pad a 1-0 first-inning lead (courtesy of a game-opening infield error and two singles) proved costly. The hosts tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out double by junior Amauri English and a single by senior Lauryn Bethea, and claimed the all-important first game on freshman Hayley Krockta's two-run, game-ending home run in the bottom of the seventh that was made possible by a two-out infield error.
 
Eastern graduate righty Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) carried a three-hitter and a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning of the nightcap and was one out from the win after retiring the first two batters. At that point, UMass rallied for the game-winning runs on three singles and two walks. The trying run came home on a bases loaded walk, and Melchionda completed the UMB sweep with a single to center.
 
In the second game, Eastern had erased UMass Boston's 1-0 first-inning lead with two unearned runs on singles by senior rightfielder Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) and graduate third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) and two UMass errors.

A candidate to win LEC Player-of-the-Year honors for the second time in her career, Vilchez is ranked in a tie for first in the Little East in pitching wins (16), and second in innings pitched (161), starts (20) and complete games (17). She is also  sixth in the LEC with a team-leading .421 average. Vilchez and sophomore shortstop Emma Marelli (Waterford) rank 1-2 on the team in batting and multiple-hit games. Vilchez has collected more than one hit 14 times, with Marelli (.387 BA) has 13 multiple-hit games. In the field, Vilchez has been perfect on 59 chances and Marelli has an above-average .974 fielding average for a shortstop on 153 chances.

Marelli, junior centerfielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) and first-year outfielder Kaley Laird (Bristol) have combined to steal 34 bases on 39 attempts.

While Eastern's team batting average dipped under .300 after Saturday's games, the Warriors are the LEC's No.1-rated defense with a .973 average, share the conference lead in double plays (21), and are tied for third in stolen bases (66).
 
Eastern and Castleton Split Pair During Regular Season

Eastern and Castleton split a regular-season pair April 20 at Castleton, VT. The Warriors won the opener, 12-3 and lost the second game, 9-7. In ten games since then, the Spartans have won seven, Eastern six.
 
Eastern has outscored Castleton 14-0 in two previous tournament wins in its first games after gaining first-round byes in 2022 and 2023.
 
In the first game of that doubleheader, Eastern unloaded 18 hits off three Castleton pitchers, with Vilchez going 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored, Remillard 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored, and SanGiovanni 2-for-3 with two RBI, two runs and two more hit-by-pitch. Vilchez pitched a complete-game sixth-hitter for her tenth win of the year.
 
In the second game, Eastern scored four times in the fourth to tie the game, 6-6 before the hosts answered with two in the bottom of the inning and another in the fifth. The Spartans collected ten hits of three Eastern pitchers, with Vilchez getting the final four outs without giving up a hit. Sophomore shortstop Emma Marelli (Waterford) led Eastern's nine-hit attack with three hits – including a home run -- two RBI and a run. Vilchez drove in three runs with two hits, SanGiovanni knocked in two runs, and junior centerfielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) scored three times from the No. 9 spot in the batting order.