Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
MANSFIELD, Conn. – For the fourth time this season, sophomore Elizabeth Mitchell (Coventry) tossed a complete-game shutout in the first game of a two-game set, giving the Eastern Connecticut State University softball team a chance to gain a doubleheader sweep. And for the fourth time, the Warriors were unable to cash in.
 
Mitchell (10-3) tossed a complete-game two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts to send the Warriors to a 4-0 Little East Conference victory in the first game of a doubleheader with Keene State College (12-10, 3-3 LEC). In the nightcap, Eastern (14-10, 5-3 LEC) cut a seven-run deficit to three and had the tying run at the plate in sixth and seventh innings but was unable to complete the sweep in a 10-7 loss.
 
Eastern visits WPI Thursday in a non-conference doubleheader at 3:30 p.m.
 
Eastern Conn. 4, Keene State College 0
 
In the briskly-played one hour and 20 minute opener, Mitchell pitched her 11^th complete game in 12 starts and fifth shutout in lowering her ERA to 1.83. She has struck out 77 in 84 innings against 24 walks. Mitchell's shutout gives the Warriors only their second shutout of Keene in the last 12 meetings.
 
Mitchell had a no-hitter through 4 2/3 innings before an infield single by Abbie Monkevicz broke the streak and gave the Owls their fourth baserunner. A looping one-out single with one out in the seventh proved Keene with its only other hit. Mitchell struck out two batters in an inning twice.
 
The Warriors scored all of the runs they would need in the third inning when they strung together five straight hits against complete-game loser Ashley Connor (2-3), who limited Eastern to hits in only two of six innings.
 
In the three-run third, No. 9 hitter Julia Boya (Coventry) doubled off the first pitch that she saw from Connor and rode home on Mitchell's opposite-field single to right to give Eastern a 1-0 lead. Junior shortstop Grace Jenkins (Groton), No. 3 hitter Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) and cleanup hitter Abby Thompson (Westborough, MA) followed with singles, Bowen and Thompson plating runs.
 
Keene State College 10, Eastern Conn. 7
 
In the nightcap, the teams slogged through a two-hour and 21 minute marathon which involved seven pitchers (one of whom made two appearances), 24 hits, 15 walks, three hit batters, two wild pitches, two passed balls, and 23 stranded baserunners (but no errors).
 
In danger of being mercied in the second game after trailing 10-3 after five-and-one-half innings, Eastern brought the tying run to the plate in both the sixth and seventh innings.
 
Eastern rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth on three hits, two walks and two hit-by-pitches. The Warriors chased starter Megan Strzegowski (5-0) two batters into the inning after Mitchell was hit by a pitch to open the inning and came home on Jenkins' two-out home run to left-center  -- her second of the year – that made it 10-5.  Thompson later drove in the final two runs of the inning on a two-out, two-run single that made it 10-7, but relief pitcher Jaelyn Boretti got an infield ground ball to retire the potential tying run.
 
After her route-going performance in the first game, Mitchell stood to win both ends of a doubleheader for the third time this year when she  was summoned with the bases loaded and two out in the sixth. She got an infield popup and a fly ball to center to keep the deficit at seven runs, then got three infield outs in the top of the seventh inning.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, Mitchell singled to start the inning and with two out, Boya walked to bring the potential tying run to the plate before relief pitcher Olivia Souers got a game-ending fly ball to right.
 
Four Eastern pitchers gave up 15 hits, with No. 3 hitter Elyse Picard of Keene reaching in all five of her plate appearances with two doubles, a three-run home run that gave her team a 6-1 lead in the fourth, a bases-loaded HBP and a walk. She scored twice.
 
With two hits on the day, Bowen moved to within two hits of 100 in her four-year career. In addition to her RBI single in the third inning of the first game, Bowen drove in two runs with a two-out double in the fifth inning of the nightcap that made the score 8-3.