BOSTON, Mass. – Powered by two runs in the top of the seventh inning to go ahead, Eastern Connecticut took down the UMass Dartmouth softball team, 7-5, in round two of Little East Conference Tournament action on Thursday. The Corsairs will now face Rhode Island College in an elimination game on Friday morning, while the Warriors will face Southern Maine.
It was the Corsairs who struck first, quickly putting some runs on the board and getting out to a 4-0 lead after two innings of play. UMD drove in three runs in the second inning, highlighted by a two-RBI single off the bat of sophomore third baseman
RaeLynn Perregaux. Eastern was able to cut into the deficit with a run in the third inning to make it 4-1.
In the top of the fourth, ECSU turned the tables on the Corsairs by driving in four runs to take their first lead of the day. The Warriors' four-run fourth inning saw a sac fly from junior first baseman Maggie Rubeck score a run, along with RBI-singles from junior center fielder Maggie Baker and freshman left fielder Kaley Laird. Eastern led 5-4 going into the bottom of the inning, when the Corsairs responded with another run on an RBI-single from sophomore second baseman
Emma Talpey to even it back up at 5-5.
After a scoreless fifth and sixth innings, the contest was still tied up at 5-5 entering the seventh, when Eastern Connecticut drove in a pair of late runs to retake the lead. The Warriors scored on a sacrifice bunt and then on a double blasted to the center field fence by grad student third baseman Julia SanGiovanni. ECSU's grad student hurler Alyssa Vilchez finished out her complete game by retiring the side in the bottom of the seventh, as the Warriors took the 7-5 win.
Vilchez (18-8) picked up her 18
th win of the season, allowing five runs on six hits with three strikeouts. From the plate, Eastern saw Baker go 2-for-3 with three RBIs. SanGiovanni was 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Laird went 1-for-2 with two RBIs and a run scored.
For UMass Dartmouth, senior hurler
Kaitlyn Shirshac shouldered the loss, allowing seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits with three strikeouts in a full 7.0 innings of work. From the plate, junior right fielder
Kinu Takasugi went 2-for-2 with two walks and scored three runs. Talpey was 1-for-2 with two walks and two RBIs, while Perregaux went 1-for-4 with two RBIs.
The Corsairs will face fourth-seeded Rhode Island College in an elimination match to start the day tomorrow morning. The Little East Conference Semifinal matchup will begin at 9:00am in Boston, Massachusetts.
