Box Score
CASTLETON, Vt. – Scoreless through its first ten tournament innings, second-seeded University of Massachusetts Dartmouth broke  a scoreless tie by scoring two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth and eliminated fourth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University, 4-1, on the second day of the 2026 Little East Conference Softball Tournament Friday afternoon at Spartan Field on the campus of top-seeded Vermont State University Castleton.
 
Following an opening 11-inning loss Thursday morning, Eastern (23-18) had stayed alive Thursday afternoon with a 3-2 elimination game victory over No. 3 Plymouth State University.
 
After splitting a road doubleheader at UMass Dartmouth (26-11) ten days ago, Eastern became the second team eliminated in the six-team, double-elimination LEC tournament.
 
The Corsairs, shut out by No. 6 University of Massachusetts Boston in their tournament opener earlier Friday, 1-0, despite giving up only two hits, advance to play VTSU Castleton Saturday in an elimination game. In their tournament opener, the Spartans were upended by No. 5 Rhode Island College, 4-3, in Friday's first game when they failed to score in the bottom of the seventh inning after loading the bases with none out.
 
Against Eastern, UMass Dartmouth broke open an early pitcher's duel between Eastern sophomore Elizabeth Mitchell (Coventry) and UMD junior Edy Crawford (11-8) by  scoring twice in the fourth on a single by Oliva Ali and back-to-back doubles by Lena Tsonis and Emma Tapley. The Corsairs made it 4-0 with two more runs in the fifth when they chased Mitchell (12-8) on an infield single, sacrifice bunt, an RBI single by Raelynn Peregaux and an RBI double by Olivia Silva.
 
Heading into the fourth, Mitchell had pitched 15 tournament innings in less than 30 hours. She threw a complete game in the 11-inning loss to Rhode Island College in the opener Thursday morning, and got the final three outs in the win over Plymouth State later Thursday for her LEC-leading fifth save.
 
Trailing 4-0 against the Corsairs, the Warriors got one back in the sixth and threatened in the seventh before falling short. Eastern scored its run in the sixth on junior Kaley Laird's (Bristol) one-out double and senior Maddy Bowen's (Hudson, NH) two-out RBI single, but Crawford got a line drive out to end the inning.
 
In the seventh, Eastern brought the tying run to the plate after Mitchell and pinch hitter Carli LoPresto (Stonington) singled, but UMD freshman righty Brielle Kenney, the hard-luck loser earlier in the day against UMass Boston, earned her first save by inducing a game-ending 6-4-3 double play on the second pinch she threw.
 
Sophomore Jordan Bennett (Plainville, MA) who had blanked UMD and Crawford, 2-0, during the regular season for her first career complete-game shutout, took over for Mitchell with two outs in the fifth and allowed three hits over the final 1 1/3 innings.
 
Eastern managed only six hits off the UMD pitching duo, with Laird the only player with more than one. She was 2-for-3 with a stolen base and scored the team's run.