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MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- With the fourth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University softball team In danger of making only a a cameo appearance in the 2026 Little East Conference Softball Tournament after failing to accept what fifth-seeded Rhode Island College was trying so hard to give away and losing in 11 innings by a score of 5-3 in the first game of the s tournament Thursday morning at Middlebury College's Baseball and Softball Complex, three sophomores stepped up in an elimination game last Thursday.

And because of it, Eastern (23-17) has an opportunity to make an extended stay in the six-team, double-elimination tournament.

Just hours after the Warriors, as the home team batting last, failed to push across the go-ahead (sixth inning) or walk-off run (7th through 11th innings) over the final six innings, sophomore  right-handed pitchers Jordan Bennett (Plainville, MA) and Elizabeth Mitchell (Coventry) and third baseman Sam Healy (Cranston, RI) stated -- through their actions -- that the Warriors would live to see another day as they propelled Eastern to a come-from-behind 3-2 win over third-seeded Plymouth State University (18-19-1).

Eastern moves on to another elimination game Friday in the third of three games on the second day of the tournament against the loser of Friday's second game between No. 2 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (25-10) and No. 6 University of Massachusetts Boston (26-11). After winning last year's LEC tournament as the No. 5 seed by beating Plymouth State twice in the championship round (and beating No. 1 seed and host Eastern twice), the Beacons were sent into Thursday's losers' bracket against Eastern with a 5-2 victory over the Panthers, 5-2, in the second game Thursday.

Bennett (5-1) has now beaten Plymouth State twice (combining on a six-hit shutout with Mitchell during the regular season), UMass Dartmouth (her only career shutout), UMass Boston and   Rhode Island College once each this year. On Thursday, she allowed 11 hits but didn't walk a batter and stranded seven runners during her 101-pitch performance. She allowed two hits but stranded two in the first and fifth innings and came away with Eastern's 3-2 lead intact despite giving up three hits, by stranding two more. In that inning, she was rescued when junior leftfielder Grace Jenkins (Groton) threw out a runner at third base. In that inning, Bennett got Addison Willett -- who had given Plymouth a 2-0 lead with a two-run double in the fourth -- to foul out for the first out.

Trailing 2-0 and nine outs away from a quick exit from the tournament, Eastern tied the game with two runs in the top of the fifth that set the stage for what proved to be Healy's game-winning RBI -- a solo home run to left leading off the sixth inning on the second pitch that she saw from freshman complete-game loser Allie Cecere (11-6). The homer was Healy's team-leading seventh of the year and her team-leading 16th extra-base hit of the season. The Warriors had tied the game the previous inning when junior centerfielder Julia Boya (Coventry) doubled down the left field line and stole third.  Jenkins followed by driving in Boya for the first run with an opposite-field single to right, and with two out, Jenkins stole second and came home with the tying run on Mitchell's single up the middle on a 1-2 pitch.

Mitchell (12-7) was saddled with her fourth straight loss in the opener despite pitching all 11 innings and losing for the second time this year to RIC freshman sensation Mia Crudale (14-1). She came to the rescue against Plymouth, however, pitching a scoreless seventh inning to gain her LEC-leading fifth save. Mitchell equalled her first-game total of two strikeouts in the seventh inning against Plymouth, stranding the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the seventh.  Mitchell got two strikeouts for the first outs of the seventh, but they bookended two singles. Mitchell finally nailed down the win when she got a game-ending line drive on a 1-2 pitch to senior first baseman Maddy Bowen (Hudson, NH).

The start against RIC was Mitchell's first start since a nine-day layoff due to an ankle injury.

For the fourth time in just over two weeks, Bennett followed up a Mitchell loss by winning the second game of the day. And for the third time in that stretch, Mitchell followed up her first-game loss by saving Bennett's win.