Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
HARTFORD, Conn. --  Elizabeth Mitchell (Coventry) pitched a complete-game six hitter and drove in two runs with her first career home run and the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team tied the program game record with eight doubles in a 9-4 win over Trinity College in the first game and a split of a non-conference doubleheader Thursday at the Trinity Softball Field.

In Trinity's (6-11) 9-7 second-game win, the Bantams wiped out Eastern's early 2-0 lead by scoring five times in the bottom of the second inning on six hits, and after Eastern (7-13) closed to within 5-4 in the third, added two runs in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth off senior lefty Alexa Boone (Middletown) and first-year righty Jordan Bennett (Plainville, MA).

Last year's Little East tournament champion, Eastern returns to conference play with a doubleheader at a site and time to be determined against Keene State College, looking to extend an 18-game winning streak against the Owls. Keene (11-5, 0-0 LEC) had won seven of its previous eight heading into Friday's LEC contest against visiting Western Connecticut State University.

Game 1

Eastern collected a season-high 15 hits and was awarded five walks against sophomore complete-game loser Zofia Sargent (4-6) in sending the Bantams to their fifth straight loss and rebounding from a pair of 2-1 Little East Conference losses at the University of Southern Maine last Friday.

Trailing 2-1, Eastern went ahead for good with three runs in the top of the third inning by stringing together four straight hits, with junior DP Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) and first-year third baseman Sam Healy (Cranston, RI) driving in runs with doubles and No. 8 hitter Abby Thompson (Westborough, MA) making it 4-2 with a two-out RBI single.

Mitchell (4-6), who singled and scored the first run of the third inning,  made it 6-2 with a two-run home run in the fourth – her first of two on the day -- to send home senior second baseman and leadoff hitter Maddi Sauve (Mansfield), who had doubled with one out. Mitchell had her team-leading fifth multiple-hit game of the season.

Bowen collected her third and fourth doubles of the season and drove in two runs. The eight doubles ties the program game record set in a 6-5 second-game win at Johnson & Wales University in 2018. Thompson had three hits and drove in two runs and Mitchell and Bowen each reached three times with two hits and a walk.

Mitchell fanned two and survived six walks to record her third win in her last four decisions.

Senior centerfielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) made her first appearance of the season after rehabbing an injury and had two outfield putouts (she did not come to bat).

Game 2

A first-year player, Mitchell's second home run of the day with two out in the first gave Eastern an early lead, and Boone and senior first baseman Maggie Rubeck (Easthampton, MA) doubled to make it 2-0 in the second inning.

Trailing 9-6 in the top of the seventh, Eastern pushed across a run on two inning-opening walks, Sauve's single and a passed ball but left the tying runs in scoring position against complete-game winner Annie Konieczka (2-4). Konieczka allowed eight hits and eight walks and hit a batter but only allowed more than a run in any one inning only once, thanks in part to stranding 11 Eastern baserunners.

After  getting a hit in her only at-bat in the first game, Boone was 3-of-3 in the second game  with a double, fifth-inning solo home run, two runs scored, two RBI, and a sacrifice fly to improve her team-leading average to .600 (15-of-25) with nine extra-base hits, seven runs scored and seven RBI.

Eastern's Leaders

On the day, Boone had four hits and Thompson, Rubeck and Mitchell three each, with the Warriors collecting 14 extra-base hits (11 doubles, three HRs)… Boone doubled twice and homered, scored three runs and drove in two... Mitchell reached six times with three hits and three walks, scored four runs and drove in three… Rubeck reached five times, scored three runs and drove in one and handled 21 chances at first base without an error… as a team, Eastern committed only one error to raise its season percentage to .961… in her first games back, Baker had five putouts in the outfield… on the mound, Boone and Bennett walked only one batter in six innings of work… the Bantams were 7-of-7 in stolen bases, which gives Eastern's opponents 29 thefts in 31 attempts this year…