CLERMONT, Fla. --  The Eastern Connecticut State University softball team had its season-opening game against Macalester College Sunday at the Legends Way Ballfields suspended due to lightning and rain with the Warriors leading, 1-0, with the Scots batting with one out and none on in the bottom of the fourth inning. Parts of central Florida were under a tornado warning, with heavy winds and rain expected through the early evening Sunday.

The Warriors' second game of the day against Rutgers-Newark was postponed. On Monday, the Warriors were scheduled to face SUNY Fredonia at 10 a.m. and Framingham State University at 2:45 p.m. Monday's schedule has not yet been announced.

Sophomore righty Elizabeth Mitchell (Coventry), last year's Little East Conference Pitcher-of-the-Year as only a freshman, drove in the only run of the game in the first inning and was shutting out Macalester on two hits through three-and-one-third innings. Mitchell had retired the first batter of the inning on a ground ball to first-year junior shortstop Grace Jenkins (Groton) before the lightning siren went off to suspend play.

Mitchell has thrown 33 of her 45 pitches for strikes, fanning two and walking one. She escaped the second inning unscathed after Macalester loaded the bases with none out on a leadoff double, an outfield error and a walk. Mitchell got a first-pitch fly ball to junior second baseman Reagan Lalor (Danbury),  a foul fly to first-year rightfielder Ashlyn Kenefick (Southington) and strikeout looking to pitcher and No. 9 batter Martha Miller to preserve the 1-0 lead.

Batting leadoff, Mitchell drove the first pitch of 2026 to center for a triple and came home on an infield ground ball by senior first baseman Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH). The Warriors had an opportunity to add to their lead in the second by loading the bases with one out on a walk, hit-by-pitch and No. 9 batter Julia Boya's (Coventry) bunt, but Miller got a ground ball force at home and an outfield fly ball.