KEENE, N.H.—Freshmen Roxanne Vento (Arlington, Mass.) and Alexa St. Angelo (Cranston, R.I.) each hit solo home runs and freshman pitcher Annie Thomas (Lunenburg, Mass.) allowed just three hits, as #5 UMass Boston softball eliminated defending champion #6 Eastern Connecticut State University 3-1 in the Little East Conference Tournament. 

THE BASICS

#5 UMass Boston 3, #6 Eastern Connecticut State University 1

(UMass Boston 20-18)

(Eastern Connecticut State 15-25)

HOW IT HAPPENED 

With the game tied at 1-1 headed into the bottom of the sixth, St. Angelo hit a lead-off homer for her first collegiate home run and Kaitlyn Morse (Arlington, Mass.) drove in Taylor Pawlina (Woonsocket, R.I.) for an insurance run.

Thomas took over from there, as she mowed down the Warriors hitters in order in the seventh, to secure the Beacons' second all-time LEC Tournament victory.

With the victory, #5 UMass Boston will advance to play #2 UMass Dartmouth on Saturday at Noon. If the Beacons win that game, they would then play another elimination game at 2 p.m.

St. Angelo finished 2-for-2 in the win with a single and a home run and also reached on a hit by pitch. Morse tacked on three hits in four at bats and Vento reached twice on her home run and a walk. Finally, senior Kristina Bove (Medford, Mass.) ended the day 1-for-2 with two walks. 

In the circle, Thomas extended the Beacons' season with another impressive performance. After dominating through six innings against UMass Dartmouth on Wednesday, Thomas showed no signs of slowing down in her second collegiate postseason appearance. The freshman righty allowed just three hits and one run in seven innings, while striking out seven and walking four. 

Junior Summer Cipriani allowed all three runs and scattered eight hits across 5.2 innings. Senior Emily Komornik came on and got the final out of the sixth, in her final collegiate appearance.

With the loss, the defending LEC Champions finish the LEC Tournament 0-2 and suffer their second worst season in program history at 15-25.

Thomas came out firing, as she struck out the first two batters of the first and got the final two batters of the second to go do swinging.

Moments later, Vento gave the Beacons their first lead of the game, as she blasted a homer over the right-field fence for her team-leading third home run of the season.

UMass Boston nearly doubled their lead in the third, as they put a runner on third with one out and loaded the bases with two down, but Cipriani got a strikeout to strand the bases loaded. 

Eastern Connecticut State snuck across a run in the top of the fifth. Taylor Smyth singled with one out and moved to second on a Samantha Bardos bunt single. Daniell Robillard added an RBI bunt single, as Symth came all the way from second to score. Unfazed by the wacky play, Thomas got All-American Alyssa Hancock to strike out looking and then used a popup to end the inning.

After leaving two runners on in the fifth, the Beacons struck for the go-ahead runs in the sixth. St. Angelo rocketed a home run over the left-field wall to push the lead to 2-1. Two quick outs gave Cipriani hopes of getting out of the inning, but Pawlina kept the frame going with a triple to right field. Morse made it 3-1, as she grounded a ball to shortstop and beat the throw home, for her fourth-straight multi-hit game.

Thomas easily closed out the win in the seventh, as she induced a groundout back to the circle and back-to-back infield popups. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• UMass Boston improved to 2-10 all-time in the Little East Conference Tournament. The Beacons only other win came in 2011, when #5 UMass Boston defeated #6 Plymouth State 4-2 in an elimination game.
• The Beacons earned the season-sweep of the Warriors, as they picked up their third-straight win over Eastern Connecticut State University. UMass Boston had been 0-40 coming into the season against the LEC powerhouse.
• With the win, UMass Boston clinched their first winning season since 2011, and became only the third-team in program-history to reach 20 wins.
• Friday's game marked the second time this season UMass Boston has hit multiple home runs in a game. The first time also came against Eastern Connecticut State, in game two on April 10.
• In three games against Eastern Connecticut State University, Vento and St. Angelo combined to go 15-for-20 with 13 RBI and eight extra-base hits. 

WHO'S NEXT

The Beacons will take on  #2 UMass Dartmouth (1-1) on Saturday at noon. UMass Dartmouth defeated UMass Boston on Wednesday in Boston in the LEC Tournament by a 6-5 score.