BOSTON, Mass.—Neither side achieved what they wanted Saturday, as UMass Boston softball and UMass Dartmouth split a pair of pitching duels in a matchup of the number one and two pitching staffs in the Little East Conference.

THE BASICS

Game One: UMass Boston 1, UMass Dartmouth 0

Game Two: UMass Dartmouth 3, UMass Boston 1 (8 Innings)

(UMass Boston 11-7, 1-1 Little East)

(UMass Dartmouth 15-6, 1-1 Little East)

HOW IT HAPPENED 

Lauren Mitsiaris (Taunton, Mass.) plated the first and only run of game one, as the junior first baseman delivered an RBI walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh.

After seven scoreless innings in the second contest, UMass Dartmouth broke through with five-straight singles to score three runs, and prevent the Beacons from earning their first-ever sweep on LEC Opening Day.

GAME ONE

For the second time in three home games, Mitsiaris proved to be the hero, as the junior cracked a single down the left field line with the bases loaded and two down in the bottom of the seventh. 

The single helped freshman pitcher Annie Thomas (Lunenburg, Mass.) earn the win and make some history. With her third collegiate shutout, Thomas tied Trisha Cole ('00), Emily Wolf ('11) and Michelle Zullo ('15) for the single-season mark for shutouts in a season (three). Thomas allowed just three hits and stranded 11 baserunners, due to some shaky control. The freshman ace walked a season-high five batters and hit three more batters, while striking out six. 

Junior Kaitlyn Morse (Arlington, Mass.) and Mitsiaris led the Beacons with two hits apiece and four of the team's seven total hits. Morse came in to score on Mitsiaris' walk-off single.

For the Corsairs, senior Shannon Orton was the tough-luck loser. The senior allowed seven hits and one unearned run in 6.2 innings. Orton also struck out six, while walking two batters. 

Both pitchers did a masterful job of working themselves out of jams, as Orton stranded seven batters, while Thomas left 11 on base. 

The Corsairs left the bases loaded in the third and the fifth and left at least one runner on base in every inning from the second to the seventh.

UMass Boston didn't fare much better, as they left runners on in the first, third and fourth and left the bases loaded in the fifth.

The Beacons finally scratched across a run in the seventh. With one out, Taylor Pawlina (Woonsocket, R.I.) started the rally with an infield single. Morse reached on an error to put two runners on and both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch. After Roxanne Vento (Arlington, Mass.) worked a walk, Orton got a huge second out, as she induced a weak grounder to the mound, that erased Pawlina at home. On the second pitch of her at-bat, Mitsiaris drove a liner down the left-field line to easily score Morse and give the Beacons a 1-0 win. 

GAME TWO

If anything game two proved to be even more of a pitcher's duel, as Hannah Smith (Attelboro, Mass.) and Vic Zechello (Foxborough, Mass.) combined to allow just five hits and zero runs through the first seven frames.

UMass Dartmouth finally broke through in the eight, as they struck for three runs on five-consecutive, two-out singles. The Beacons tried to muster a comeback, but managed just one run on a pair of base hits.

Smith earned her LEC-leading ninth win, as the sophomore allowed five hits and one earned over eight innings.

Each of the top five hitters for the Corsairs finished with a hit, with Jill Miller finally breaking through with an RBI and a run scored. The LEC's leading hitter was retired in each of her first seven at-bats, before plating the first of the Corsairs' three runs in the eighth.

Zechello nearly had her third home shutout in three career home starts, as she allowed seven hits and three earned runs in eight innings of work.

Freshmen Alyssa Tulley (Lowell, Mass.) and Pawlina led the Beacons with two hits and a double apiece.

Neither side could get anything going through the first seven innings, as the two teams combined for just nine baserunners.

UMass Dartmouth had their lone good chance in the third, when Rachel Carey walked with one down and Adi Alicea-Cordero followed with a bunt single. Zechello retired the next two batters with easy groundouts to get out of a jam. 

The Beacons looked destined for another walk-off win in the seventh, before Smith shut them down. Gia Raczkowski (Stoneham, Mass.) blasted a one-out triple over the center fielder's head to put the winning run on third with one down. Smith shook it off and calmly got a foul pop and a swinging strikeout. 

After retiring the first two batters easily in the eighth, Zechello allowed five-consecutive singles, with the final three credited as RBI singles.

Trailing 3-0 with just three outs left, Pawlina started a mini-rally with a single through the left-side. After a fielder's choice for the second out of the inning, Tulley cut the deficit to 3-1, as she belted an RBI double into the left-field corner to score Morse. That would be all the Beacons could muster, as Smith recorded the final out with a popup to short.

BY THE NUMBERS 

• With their game one win, UMass Boston improved to 5-0 at home for the first time in program history. The Beacons had started the 2000 and 2011 seasons 4-0, before losing their fifth game.
• While they didn't manage their first-ever LEC opening doubleheader sweep, the Beacons earned just their second split on LEC Opening Day since 1997. The Beacons also earned a split at UMass Dartmouth in 2012.
• With the split, UMass Dartmouth improved to 32-13 against the Beacons. The Beacons though have earned wins in 11 of their past 16 meetings, including seven of eight in Boston.
• Thomas lowered her earned run average to 0.63 after seven scoreless innings. As a team, the Beacons ERA stayed at 1.40, while UMass Dartmouth's ERA dropped .22 points to 2.34.
• With both of their runs coming with two outs, the Beacons have now scored all 13 of their runs this weekend with two outs. 

WHO'S NEXT

UMass Boston will look to grab momentum back on Sunday, as they head to Eastern Connecticut State University for an LEC doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m. The Beacons have never defeated the Warriors in 40 all-time meetings.