Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
CLERMONT, Fla. – The clutch pitching, timely hitting and consistent defense which helped carry the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team to four wins on the first two days of The Spring Games abandoned the Warriors on Thursday and sent them to their first two losses of the season at Hancock Park.

In losses to a solid No. 14 nationally-ranked University of Wisconsin Whitewater (8-1) team and to a .500 University of Chicago (6-1) team, Eastern was limited to ten total hits (eight singles) by two complete-game winning pitchers, allowed 16 hits and committed five errors that accounted for four unearned runs.

On Friday, Eastern is scheduled to face Ithaca College at 9 a.m. and Wellesley College at 11:30 at the Legends Way Ballfields.

UW-Whitewater 8, Eastern Conn. 1

Josie Hammen (4-1) spun a five-hitter, allowing only one extra-base hit and the Warhawks (7-3) snapped a 1-1 tie by batting around and scoring four runs in the top of the third on six hits (all singles), a hit-by-pitch and an Eastern throwing error. Hammen fanned six and walked three, with only sophomore Elizabeth Mitchell's (Coventry) game-tying leadoff home run in the second separating her from a shutout.

In addition to Mitchell's first home run of the season, Eastern managed singles from sophomore third baseman Sam Healy (Cranston, RI), junior leftfielder Kaley Laird (Bristol), senior second baseman Lily Kenefick (Southington) and junior centerfielder Julia Boya (Coventry).

Healy singled with one after Mitchell's home run and took second on an outfield error but Hammen got swinging strikeouts to end the inning and keep the score tied; Laird legged out an infield error with one out in the third but was called out after leaving first early on a stolen base attempt; Kenefick and Boya opened the fifth inning with singles (Boya's a bunt), but the Warriors were unable to get the ball out of the infield as Hammen escaped the threat with two infield ground balls and an infield popup.

Mitchell (2-1) was touched for 11 hits and six earned runs while fanning three, walking two and hitting two batters. The righty was able to retire the side in order with the score tied 1-1 in the second and again in the fourth with Eastern trailing, 5-1. She was lifted with two on and none out in Whitewater's two-run sixth inning, but returned to close out the inning (and the game) after junior righty Hadley Marchand (Andover) hit a batter and walked in a run.
 
Chicago 6, Eastern Conn. 1

Thirty-five minutes after losing to Whitewater, Eastern was handcuffed by Chicago (6-5) freshman righty Eleanor Johnson (4-1), who used a command of the strike zone and a changeup to stop Eastern on five hits. She fanned three (of the first four batters she faced), with her only two walks coming to Mitchell leading off the top of the fifth with Eastern down 3-0 and to Healy leading off the seventh and Eastern trailing 6-1.

First-year righty Leah Chatfield (Naugatuck) and redshirt sophomore righty Julia Raymond (Woonsocket, RI) combined on a five-hitter but walked four and four errors accounted for two unearned runs. Chatfield (2-1) pitched into the sixth and left with the Warriors trailing 4-1, but a two-out, two-run double on a routine fly ball which fell between two outfielders pushed across Chicago's final two runs.

With Eastern down 1-0, Healy doubled with two outs in the second but was stranded there when Johnson got an inning-ending fall ball to right. With the score still 1-0, No. 9 hitter Laird reached on a bunt with one out but was doubled off first on Boya's line drive to Johnson.

After Johnson pitched two scoreless innings with the Maroons leading 4-0, Eastern parlayed three consecutive hits after there were two out into its only two runs in the sixth. First-year rightfielder Ashlyn Kenefick (Southington) got aboard with an infield hit, moved to second on senior first baseman Maddy Bowen's (Hudson, NH) hard single to center and came around on first-year catcher Jenna Maus's (Wodbridge) first-pitch, opposite-field single to right.