KEENE, N.H.—Freshman pitcher Annie Thomas (Lunenburg, Mass.) limited the top two seeds in the Little East Conference Tournament to one run and 12 hits, as #5 UMass Boston Softball stunned the field on Day 3 of the Little East Conference Tournament.

THE BASICS

#5 UMass Boston 5, #2 UMass Dartmouth 1

#5 UMass Boston 1, #1 Keene State College 0

(UMass Boston 22-18)

(UMass Dartmouth 27-15)

(Keene State 22-17)

HOW IT HAPPENED

After watching a lead slip away in her first-ever collegiate tournament appearance, Thomas threw her second and third consecutive outstanding performances in two days. The freshman pitcher allowed just one earned run in a pair of seven-inning complete-inning victories.

In total, she allowed 12 hits and eight walks, while striking out 14 batters in 14 innings of work. With her two victories, she improved to 13-9, tying the program-record for wins in a single-season and earning wins over the top two statistical pitchers in the LEC this season.

UMass Boston will take on #4 Western Connecticut State University on Sunday starting at 11 a.m. in the Little East Conference Championship Series. The Beacons need to win the first game, to force a Championship Game later Sunday afternoon. 

GAME ONE

In a rematch of Wednesday's LEC Opening Round game, UMass Boston avenged their only tournament loss, with a 5-1 elimination win over the second-seeded Corsairs.

The Beacons used a four-run bottom of the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give Thomas more than enough run support, in her duel with Corsairs ace Shannon Orton.

For the game, Thomas struck out eight and allowed eight hits and one run, to improve to 2-2 on the year against UMass Dartmouth.

Junior Lauren Mitsiaris (Taunton, Mass.) and freshman Alyssa Tulley (Lowell, Mass.) keyed the four-run sixth, with both players coming through with RBI singles.

Tulley led UMass Boston with a single and two RBI, while Mitsiaris and junior Gia Raczkowski (Stoneham, Mass.) each added a hit, a run scored and an RBI.

Orton was the tough-luck loser, as she took the loss after a big inning in the opposing team's final at-bat for a second-straight day. She allowed eight hits and five runs, three earned, in six innings. 

Orton also added the team's lone RBI, while junior catcher Gracie Trudeau finished with three hits against Thomas for the second time in less than seven days.

UMass Dartmouth threatened in the top of the first, but with the bases loaded and no outs, the Beacons turned a double play. Raczkowski made the catch on a fly ball in right and threw to first, where Mitsiaris tagged out a runner. From there, Thomas got Orton to fly out to center to keep the game scoreless. 

The Corsairs scratched across a single run in the top of the third. With the bases loaded and one down, Orton singled through the left side to plate Trudeau. Undeterred by the adversity, Thomas struck out the next two batters swinging to strand the bases loaded.

UMass Boston responded back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning. With the bases loaded on a pair of singles and an error, Raczkowski walked with the bases loaded and two down to tie the game at 1-1.

Thomas stranded one runner each in the fourth, fifth and sixth, to set up the Beacons' go-ahead rally in the bottom of the sixth.

Raczkowski opened the inning with a single and took second on Roxanne Vento's (Arlington, Mass.) bunt single. After a wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position, Mitsiaris gave the Beacons' their first lead with an RBI single to right center. Two batters later, Tulley drove in both Raczkowski and Mitsiaris with a two-run single. UMass Boston tacked on a fourth run with two outs, as Taylor Marcotte (Agawam, Mass.) raced home on a Corsairs error.

The Corsairs put the first two runners on to start the top of the seventh, but Thomas shut them down with a popup, a fielder's choice and a strike out swinging to end it.

GAME TWO

Thomas was even better in game two, as she led the Beacons' to their first win of the season against the Owls. Eight days after Keene State tagged Thomas for seven earned runs in four-plus innings, she allowed just four hits in her program-record fifth shutout of the season.

Thomas struck out six and walked four, to shut down an Owls team that had scored 11 runs in both ends of a doubleheader sweep against the Beacons.

Vento provided all the offense Thomas would need, as she drove in junior captain Kaitlyn Morse (Arlington, Mass.) with a two-out RBI single in the top of the first inning.

From there, Thomas faced just seven over the minimum, in eliminating the hosts and top seed.

Alexa St. Angelo (Cranston, R.I.) and Marcotte each finished with two hits in the victory.

Keene State centerfielder Stephanie Long finished 2-for-4, while Heather Pelletier and Shae Crosby were the only other Owls to record a hit. 

LEC Pitcher of the Year candidate Mariah Crisp took the loss, after allowing a run in one inning of work. She was replaced by Molly St. Germain, who allowed five hits in six scoreless innings.

UMass Boston needed just four batters to score the game-winning run. Morse worked a lead-off walk and moved to second on a Kristina Bove (Medford, Mass.) sacrifice bunt. After a strikeout kept Morse on second, Vento sent a single to left field and Morse beat the relay throw home for a 1-0 edge in the top of the first.

The Owls nearly came back and tied the game in the bottom of the first. They put runners at first and second with one out, but Thomas induced a pair of groundouts to end the threat. 

Keene State wouldn't put a runner in scoring position again until the sixth. In the sixth, Pelletier doubled with one down and moved to third on a groundout. After a walk to red-hot Jen Galavotti, Thomas got Olivia Indorf to groundout with runners at the corners.

Crosby led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, but Thomas wasn't having it. The freshman ace struck out the next two batters and then got Long to pop up to the catcher for the final out.

BY THE NUMBERS

• UMass Boston will be making their first-ever appearance in the LEC Championship Series in the 18-year history of the tournament.
• After going 1-9 in their first 10 all-time LEC Tournament games, the Beacons have now won three in a row.
• UMass Boston's two wins pushed their season win total to 22. The Beacons 22 wins rank second all-time in program-history, behind only the 2011 team (24-15).
• Thomas tied Emily Wolf's ('11) program-record for wins in a single-season  at 13. She needs to throw just 2.2 innings on Sunday, to break Kara Willis ('09) program-record for innings pitched in a single-season (163.0). Thomas already owns the Beacons' single-season marks for shutouts (five) and strikeouts (151).
• The Beacons have now won at least one game against every LEC team but #4 Western Connecticut State University. The Colonials handed the Beacons a pair of 6-0 losses in Danbury, Connecticut on April 23.

 WHO'S NEXT

The Beacons will look to defeat #4 Western Connecticut State University twice on Sunday in the LEC Championship Series. If the Beacons win the LEC Title, they will earn the LEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will find out their first-round matchup on Monday.