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BOSTON –  The third-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University softball team wiped out an early 4-0 deficit, taking its first lead with four runs in the fourth and breaking a tie by scoring twice in the seventh and remained in the winners' bracket of the 2024 Little East Conference tournament with a 7-5 decision over second-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Thursday afternoon at the University of Massachusetts Boston's UMB Softball Field.

Eastern (21-16-1), which shared second place in the final LEC standings with UMass Dartmouth (24-13) and UMass Boston, advances to the winners' bracket final of the six-team, double-elimination tournament Friday at 11 a.m. against fifth-seeded University of Southern Maine (27-11), with that winner needing one victory Saturday to secure the title.

After being rained out Wednesday, Eastern had opened tournament play Thursday morning with a 10-2, 5 inning victory over sixth-seeded VTSU Castleton (18-18). Defending tournament champion UMass Dartmouth (24-13), which swept Eastern in last year's championship round to capture its first title, was playing its first tournament game Thursday after receiving a first-round bye which is accorded the top two seeds.

The 17 total runs in one day equals the highest offensive output by the team since mid-March, when it  posted 6-5 and 17-8 wins over St. Catherine University and Sewanee, respectively, in Tucson, AZ. Five players contributed multiple hits to the 19-hit, two-game attack.

Southern Maine had begun the tournament Wednesday with a 7-0 victory over fourth-seeded Rhode Island College (28-11), then knocked off top-seeded UMass Boston (28-11), 8-4, in Thursday's third game to advance to Friday's winners' bracket final against Eastern.

Against UMass Dartmouth, Eastern broke the 5-5 tie by scoring the deciding runs in the seventh inning with the help of the only error of the game. No. 9 hitter Kaley Laird (Bristol) drew an opening walk from complete-game loser Kaitlyn Shirshac (15-10), a senior righty. Sophomore shortstop Emma Marelli (Waterford) and junior centerfielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) then dropped bunts, with an error allowing Marelli to reach (and later score the second run) and Baker's suicide squeeze plating Laird with what proved to be the winning run. Graduate third baseman Julia SanGiovanni (East Haven) sent home Marelli with a pad run on a two-out double that set a program career record of 158 RBIs.

After giving up its 4-0 lead and later falling behind by a run, UMass tied the game in the fourth, 5-5,  on No. 3 hitter Emma Talpey's RBI single that scored Kinu Takasugi, who had walked and stolen second.

 In the bottom of the sixth, Vilchez made sure the game remained tied heading into the seventh by leaving Takasugi on third by getting cleanup hitter RaeLynn Perregaux on a ground ball to second to end the inning. Takasugi, her team's leading hitter and the LEC leader with 37 stolen bases, reached on an infield single to open the sixth and stole second and third, but complete-game winner Alyssa Vilchez (Brampton, ON) got a line drive out to junior Maddi Sauve (Mansfield) at second for the first out and got Talpey looking before retiring Perregaux on a ground ball to Sauve. Takasugi reached safely in all four of her plate appearances in the game with two hits and two singles for UMass.

Eastern wiped out a 4-0 deficit by scoring once in the third when Marelli tripled with one out (breaking a 1-for-17 slump) and scored onBaker's ground ball, then taking the lead with four runs in the fourth on five hits, a walk and stolen base. Junior first baseman Maggie Rubeck's (Easthampton, MA) sacrifice fly, and run-scoring infield singles by Laird  and Baker gave Eastern the lead.

Vilchez (18-8) posted her 19^th complete game in 22 starts, allowing six hits and seven walks with three strikeouts, throwing 117 pitches. Shirsac surrendered ten hits, half coming during Eastern's five-run fourth inning. Shirsac struck out three and walked two.

Senior rightfielder Sarah Remillard (Grafton, MA) had two hits and scored a run, with SanGiovanni doubling and tripling. Baker drove in three runs with her infield single in the fourth and sac bunt that produced the winning run in the seventh. Marelli and Laird each scored twice.

UMass lost four of its final six regular-season games while Eastern had dropped three of its final four, including a pair of walk-off losses on the final day of the regular season against UMass Boston that gave the Beacons the regular-season title and No. 1 seed.

Vilchez and Shirshac had traded 1-0 shutouts the last two times the teams had opposed each other in starting roles. Shirshak had pitched a seven-hitter in her team's 12-inning victory in the deciding game of last year's LEC tournament at Clyde Washburne Field, with Perregaux's infield single driving in the only run of the game with one out that brought the Corsairs their first LEC title. Vilchez reciprocated March 30 of this year with a four-hitter, and drove in Marelli in the first inning with a one-out double after Marelli had opened the contest with a double.

In two games on the day, Vilchez allowed 12 hits – all of them singles -- and nine walks with seven strikeouts. She stranded 14 runners. Baker had five hits, drove in five runs, scored two and stole three bases for the Warriors, who stole nine of ten as a team; Remillard reached five times with three singles and two walks and scored three times; SanGiovanni reached four times with three extra-base hits and a walk (no HBPs!); Vilchez also reached fur times with two hits, a walk and HBP, scored once and drove in a run; Marelli reached three times with two hits and a walk and scored three runs with an RBI; Laird, Boya and Sauve all scored twice. Defensively, infielders Sauve, Marelli and SanGiovanni combined for 11 putouts and four assists without an error.

Eastern and Southern Maine split the regular-season pair at Washburne Field, the Warriors winning the opener, 5-1, behind Vilchez' complete-game seven-hitter before the Huskies mercied the Warriors in five innings in the nightcap, 13-5.

Eastern Conn. 10, VTSU Castleton 2 (5 inn.)

Vilchez pitched a complete-game six-hitter against the Spartans for the second time this year. She fanned four and walked two, throwing 98 pitches in her 18^th complete game in 21 starts this year. The appearance was the 76^th of her career, moving her into the Top 10 all-time in that category.

After Vilchez set Castleton (18-17) down in order in the top of the first inning, the Warriors scored all the runs they would need when they batted around in the bottom of the inning against starter Madison Gould (13-8), scoring five times on four hits and two walks. Vilchez drove in the first run with a single and Rubeck capped the rally with a two-run, two-out single to center.

SanGiovanni tied the program's career RBI record of 157 with a double in the fourth that plated first-year player Julia Boya (Coventry), pinch-running for Vilchez, who had drawn a one-out walk.

Batting second in the lineup for the first time this year after batting ninth in all of her previous 24 starts in the batting order, Baker had three of Eastern's nine hits – the first three-hit game of her career -- scored two runs, drove in two and stole three bases to move into sixth place all-time in the latter category with 55 (on 59 attempts).  Baker started rallies in the first and second innings with singles, stole a total of three bases and came around to score each time, then ended the game with a one-out, two-run single in the fifth off relief pitcher Katie Gallagher for the Warriors' eighth win in their last nine games against Castleton.

It marked the fifth straight game against an LEC opponent that the game has ended in a walk-off, the Warriors winning twice against Rhode Island College, losing twice on the final day of the regular season Saturday against Massachusetts Boston, and winning Thursday against Castleton.

 The team-leader with a .420 batting average, Vilchez reached base three times with her first-inning two-run single, a hit-by-pitch (only her second HBP in 472 career plate appearances) and the fourth-inning walk that set up Boya to score the run. Remillard reached in all three plate appearances and scored twice. She walked in the first and third innings and legged out an infield single leading off the fifth.

The Spartans collected all six of their hits in the middle three innings but stranded five baserunners and came away with only those two runs. Vilchez closed out her 17^th win in 25 decisions this year (34-12 lifetime) by striking out two in the fifth before the Warriors ended the game with their three runs in the bottom of the inning.

Including LEC tournament shutouts of Castleton in 2022 and 2023, Eastern extended its streak to 20 unanswered runs against the Spartans in LEC tournament play by taking a 6-0 lead after two innings Thursday. Castleton finally ended Eastern's runs run when it broke through for its first run in the third inning on cleanup hitter Alexi Rogers' two-out infield single and another in the fourth on No. 9 hitter Abby Hacker's two-out single to center.