Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
MANSFIELD, Conn. – First-year player Elizabeth Mitchell (Coventry) threw a complete-game eight-hitter in the opener and returned to get the final six outs of the nightcap for her second save in leading the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team to an 11-5, 9-6 Little East Conference doubleheader sweep of Plymouth State University Sunday afternoon at Clyde Washburne Field.
 
A winner of nine of its last 12 and 14 straight against Plymouth (20-13, 6-6 LEC), Eastern (15-15, 9-3 LEC) moves into sole possession of first place in the conference ahead of the University of Southern Maine (17-15, 7-3 LEC), which was idle Sunday after its scheduled LEC home doubleheader with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth was postponed.
 
Eastern concludes the LEC regular season with doubleheaders at Rhode Island College (3-8-1 LEC) Tuesday and at home against LEC pre-season favorite UMass Boston (7-4-1 LEC) Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
Mitchell (11-6), last week's LEC Pitcher and Player-of-the-Week, improved to 10-1 in her last 11 decisions  by hurling her 14^th complete game in 21 starts in the opener, fanning six and walking two and allowing only two earned runs. She was staked to a 6-0 lead in the first inning when the Warriors batted around and were aided by three Plymouth infield errors.
 
In the nightcap, Mitchell was lifted after just three batters in the first inning and was charged with those three runs, but returned in the sixth and got the final six outs to earn her second save. Making her first pitching appearance in nearly two weeks, first-year righty Michaella Bowen (Hanover, NH) was stellar in five innings of relief to gain her second win in three decisions. With Eastern leading 9-5, Bowen loaded the bases without an out in the sixth on a walk and two singles before giving way to Mitchell, who allowed one runner to score before getting an inning ground ball to first-year shortstop Jordan Bennett (Plainville) and facing only three batters in the seventh, the game ending when Mitchell snared Keelie Wells' line drive and threw to senior first baseman Maggie Rubeck (Easthampton, MA) to complete the game-ending double play.
 
In the second game, Mitchell also tied the program record with two triples – the first driving in two runs in a five-run second and the second playing another in a two-run fourth.
 
On the day, senior centerfielder Maggie Baker (Hudson, MA) had five hits and five RBI, scored four runs and made several outstanding defensive players in collecting ten outfield putouts. Junior catcher Maddy Bowen (Hanover, NH) had four hits, scored two runs and drove in two and sophomore shortstop Kaley Laird (Bristol) reached three times with a double, single and walk and scored three times.  Sophomore leftfielder Julia Boya (Coventry) and senior second baseman Maddi Sauve (Mansfield) each also had two hits and scored two runs. Senior DP Alexa Boone (Middletown) and sophomore rightfielder Reagan Lalor (Danbury) each drove in two runs.
 
Maddy Bowen's two RBI in the nightcap give her a team-high seven multiple-RBI games. By reaching safely in each game, she has reached safely in her last nine games, while Laird's two hits in the opener (she did not play in the nightcap) extended her hitting streak to seven.
 
Junior centerfielder and leadoff hitter Kenzie Bessett was among six Plymouth players with at least two hits. Bessette reached six times with a triple, four singles and a walk, stole two bases and scored two runs.
 
In 12 LEC games this year, Maddy Bowen and Sauve are both batting .415 and Boone .400. In ten appearances against LEC opponents, Mitchell is 7-1 with a 1.90 ERA in 61 ½ inning and seven complete games in eight starts. She has fanned 38 and walked only seven.