Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. – The Eastern Connecticut softball teams swept a doubleheader from Massachusetts Maritime on Saturday afternoon at Rollins Field, earning an 8-3 victory in the opener before completing the sweep with a 12-3 win in the nightcap in the season-finale.

Game Information:

• Score: Eastern 8, Mass Maritime 3 | Eastern 12, Mass Maritime 3
• Records: W: Leah Chatfield (4-6) | L: Jennamarie Klemp (10-13) | W: Julia Raymond (2-0) | L:  Ashleigh Catlett  (3-11)
• Eastern (22-16) | Mass. Maritime (13-24)
• Location: Rollins Field (Buzzards Bay, Mass.)

Key Moment (GM1)

• The Warriors pulled ahead indefinitely in the fourth inning when Eastern dropped a four-run show, sparked by Sam Healy's (Cranston, RI) two-RBI double, which was capped by Leah Chatfield's (Naugatuck) two-RBI single. The performance turned a 4-2 game into an 8-2 cushion, which Mass Maritime never recovered from.

How it Happened (GM1):

• In the first, Kaley Laird (Bristol) got the game going with a single to get on before she stole second. Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH) followed in suit with a stolen base of her own before Healy grounded out to third base, scoring Laird, and Chatfield clutched a double, which scored Bowen.
• Mass Maritime answered right back in the bottom, tying the game 2-2 off an RBI and a wild pitch, but after the hosts' action, the game fell silent in the 2nd before Grace Jenkins (Groton) flipped the tone in the third, launching a solo home run up the center.
• From there, the fourth came, Eastern aired out quick runs, and the Buccaneers struggled the remainder of the game, hitter, Kelsey Boker responsible for their lone late point with a double to left field, which scored one.

Key Moment (GM2):

• The fourth inning would be the lucky one yet again as a four-run surge, highlighted by Bowen's two RBI single and Healy's RBI knock to center field, stretched the 4-2 lead to another 8-2 gap, which would allow smooth sailing for the rest of the contest. 

 How it Happened (GM2):

• Eastern jumped out with an early lead behind Jenkins, who led off with a home run to right center, followed by Reagan Lalor (Danbury), who delivered a two-RBI double to give the Warriors a 3-0 advantage, to which Mass. Maritime responded in the bottom half with a two-RBI single, which scored the hosts for a close 3-2 edge.
• Though the Warriors continued to stack runs behind steady offense. Jenkins led the charge to score, building their advantage preceding the famous fourth, where the Warriors would pull away victoriously with four runs, before adding more insurance in the fifth and seventh, where Jenkins gathered her second home run of the game, and Bowen drove in two more runs with a single before Bennett closed with an RBI single, making the final 12-3.

LITTLE EAST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
 
Vermont State University Castleton (21-12, 12-4 LEC) won its first LEC regular-season title and gained its first No. 1 tournament seed by downing the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (25-10, 11-5), 2-1, in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader at Castleton, VT in a battle of the top two teams in the conference. (UMD won the second game, 5-0, which had no bearing on the final tournament seedings).
 
Picked to finish seven in the pre-season after coming off last year's 6-10 LEC regular-season record, the Spartans will host the six-team four-day double-elimination tournament beginning Wednesday at Spartan Field.
 
Fourth-seeded Eastern – the LEC's pre-season favorite to win the regular season -- will face No. 5 Rhode Island College (24-12) in the first of three games on the first day Wednesday at 10 a.m.. The winner of that game advances to play Castleton in Thursday's first game at 10 a.m. The loser of the Eastern-RIC game returns later Wednesday to play an elimination game in the third contest Wednesday at 4 p.m.
 
Rhode Island finished a game behind Eastern in the final standings after splitting at third-seeded Plymouth State University Saturday, losing 4-3 in the opener when the Panthers scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh, but returning for a 7-1, six-inning rout in the second half. Freshman Mia Crudale (13-1, 3.00)  and senior Gabby Cunha (7-7, 3.79) have combined to start 39 games, with junior Ashleigh von der Linden (3-4, 2.07) serving as a spot starter and reliever.
 
The Anchorwomen, who have never lost more than two in a row this year, are batting .350 as a team, led by sophomore Jillian Guilfoyle (.473), senior Noelle Simmons (.416), junior Melanie Earley (.389) and junior Sydney Duclos (.378).
 
In the regular season this year, RIC stopped a 12-game losing streak at the hands of Eastern by splitting an April 21 doubleheader at Clyde Washburne Field. The Anchorwomen took the opener, 2-1, behind Crudale's complete-game three-hitter before Eastern bounced back for a 6-4 second-game win when Grace Jenkins and Sam Healy combined to drove in five runs. In the second game, Jordan Bennett won her second game in four days as a starter and Elizabeth Mitchell earned her third save by getting an outfield fly ball to retire the potential tying run at the plate.
 
Picked for ninth (last) in the LEC pre-season poll, Rhode Island won six of its first seven games this year and swept LEC doubleheaders this year against Keene State College and Western Connecticut State University and was swept only once in the LEC in 7-6, 11-9 road loss to Castleton.
 
Eastern is a seven-time LEC tournament champion while Rhode Island has captured four crowns and is the only program to win as many as four straight titles (2006-09). In a nine-year span between 2006 and 2014, RIC reached the LEC tournament championship round seven times, placing second three times in the five years after capturing those four straight titles.
 
Eastern and Rhode Island College have not met in the LEC tournament since 2014, when the sixth-seeded Anchorwomen upset the top-seeded and host Warriors (3-1), who were eliminated in two games on their home field.
 
In 2012, the Warriors crushed RIC, 13-2, en route to the LEC tournament title at home after sweeping the Anchorwomen in the regular season, 8-0 in six innings, and 7-2.
 
In  2011, the teams met an unprecedented six times: twice in the regular season, twice in the LEC tournament at Western Connecticut and twice in the NCAA regionals, hosted by Rhode Island. The Warriors won five of those game on the way to winning the regional title and reaching the NCAA national tournament at Salem, VA. After sweeping the regular-season doubleheader, Eastern won by 7-1 over RIC in the LEC tournament and won two of three against the Anchorwomen in the regionals. RIC forced a final game for the regional title with a 3-1 win but the Warriors bounced back the next day to seal the regional title with a 4-1 decision.
 
     
1 VTSU Castleon (21-12); 2. Massachusetts Dartmouth (25-10); 3. Plymouth State U. (18-17-1); 4. EASTERN CONN. (22-16) 5. Rhode Island College (24-12); 6. Massachusetts Boston (25-11).
 
 
Wednesday, May 6
 
Game 1: EASTERN CONN. vs. Rhode Island College, 10 a.m.
Game 2: Plymouth State U. vs. Massachusetts Boston, 1 p.m.
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 4 p.m.
 
Thursday, May 7
 
Game 4: VTSU Castleton vs. Game 1 winner, 10 a.m.
Game 5: Massachusetts Dartmouth vs. Game 2 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 loser, 4 p.m.
 
Friday, May 8
 
Game 7: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 10 a.m.
Game 8:  Game 6 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 1 p.m.
Game 9:  Game 8 winner vs. Game 7 loser, 4 p.m.
 
Saturday, May 9
 
Game 10:  Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner, TBA
Game 11:  (if necessary), Same teams as Game 10, TBA