Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Western New England University softball team broke a tie by scoring four runs on two singles and four walks in the top of the ninth inning that spoiled Eastern Connecticut State University dramatic seventh-inning comeback as the Golden Bears completed a non-conference doubleheader sweep with a 13-10 second-game win Wednesday night at Clyde Washburne Field.
 
In the first game, senior righty Riley Kane pitched a complete-game two-hitter and drove in the deciding runs with a two-run, first-inning home run in Western New England's (19-18) 3-0 victory.
 
In its final regular-season home games, Eastern (20-16) was swept for only the second time since returning from Florida but lost both ends of a doubleheader for the second time in the last four doubleheaders against the Golden Bears.
 
Eastern closes out the regular season Saturday with a non-conference noon doubleheader at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The Warriors  will compete in the six-team, Little East Conference double-elimination tournament beginning Wednesday on the road at the site of the No. 1 seed (which will be determined Saturday.
 
Wednesday's doubleheader offered a stark contrast in styles. The first game was played crisply in a time of 1:16 and included complete-game pitching performances from each team, a total of only nine hits, two walks and a hit batter; the three hour and 17 minute second game marathon featured four pitching changes and over 400 pitches, 22 hits, 24 walks, four wild pitches and a hit batsmen and was decided, essentially, on a controversial bases-loaded wild pitch on a strikeout in the top of the ninth inning.
 
Game 1: Western New England U. 3, Eastern Conn. 0

Batting third in the order, Kane (9-9) slammed her first home run of the season with one out in the first inning off complete-game loser Jordan Bennett (Plainville, MA) who hadn't allowed a homer in 25 innings this year.
 
Having provided herself with the early two-run cushion, Kane became only the second pitcher this year to shut out the Warriors. After pitching the first three hitless innings, Kane allowed an infield single to Kaley Laird (Bristol) and walk to No. 3 hitter Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) and threw out a potential run at home when the Warriors tried to squeeze home their first run.
 
After giving up a first-pitch single to Lily Kenefick (Southington) with one out the fifth, Kane retired the final eight batters in order, allowing only one ball out of the infield. Of those final eight outs, second baseman Marley Rodriguez, who also doubled and scored her team's third run of the game in the fifth,  had four assists and a putout.
 
Bennett, who had recorded all four of her wins this year in the last 11 days, went the distance for the second straight start. She allowed seven hits and did not walk a batter and fanned three.
 
Game 2: Western New England U. 13, Eastern Conn. 10 (9 inn.)
 
By collecting at least one hit in every inning, WNE appeared to have the first game in hand when it carried an 8-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh. Three walks loaded the bases, however, and No 6 hitter Sam Healy (Cranston, RI) – who had flown out deep to center in the second inning -- tied the game, 8-8, with her team-leading sixth home run of the season off the Clyde Washburne Field sign beyond the left field fence.
 
With still no one out in the seventh, the Warriors had an opportunity to end the game when they loaded the bases with two out on an opposite-field single to right by pinch hitter Hadley Marchand (Andover) and two walks, but left the winning run at third on an inning-ending strikeout by reliever Brianna Cardona (4-4).
 
Starting with ghost runners on second, both teams scored once in the eighth – WNE on Rodriguez' hard RBI infield single to the left side with two out, and Eastern countering with the tying run when the Golden Bears failed to put out pinch runner Abby Thompson (Westborough, MA) at home on a ground ball to short by starting pitcher Leah Chatfield (Naugatuck).  As they had failed to do in the seventh, the Warriors could not apply the dagger in that inning, however. After Chatfield scored the tying run, pinch hitter Carli LoPresto (Stonington) singled Chatfield to third with two out, but Cardona got an infield ground ball to end the inning.
 
Western New England finally broke the game open in the top of the ninth by scoring four times on two singles, a wild pitch, and three walks, with Katelyn Bailey singling in the ghost runner for the first run, a wild pitch on a one-out strikeout with the bases loaded pushing across the second run, and No. 9 hitter Shea McDaniel plating the third and fourth runs of the inning with a two-out single to center.
 
Eastern got one back in the bottom of the inning on Laird's two-out RBI single that plated the ghost runner (Lily Kenefick), but Cardona ended the game with a four-pitch strikeout. Cardona pitched the final three innings – coming on in relief after Healy's game-tying home run in the seventh. She allowed three hits and two walks and struck out four.
 
Chatfield (3-6) started on the mound for Eastern and departed after loading the bases with none out and Eastern trailing 3-2 in the fifth. She returned to start the eighth inning in relief of Julia Raymond (Woonsocket RI) – who gave up three runs in three innings -- with the score tied 8-8 and finished the game. She allowed ten runs on eight hits and ten walks and struck out four.
 
Chatfield reached four times with three hits and a walk, drove in two runs and scored one while leadoff hitter Grace Jenkins (Groton) and Laird  each reached three times, scored a run and drove in a run. Jenkins tripled in Eastern's first run and came home when Eastern tied the game, 2-2, in the third; Laird tripled during Eastern's two-run fifth inning that cut WNE's lead to 5-4 and scored on Jenna Maus' (Woodbridge)  two-out double, with Maus' pinch runner (Bennett) coming across on Chatfield's RBI single that knocked out starting pitcher Kaylin Heffern.