MANSFIELD, CT -- No. 1 seed and No. 2 nationally-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University knocked off eighth-seeded Lesley University, 10-1 in NCAA Tournament Opening Round play Thursday morning.
Warriors ace Molly Rathburn picked up her nation-high 30th win of the season, going five innings, striking out seven and allowing only three hits. Playing in her first postseason game, Eastern freshman Jacqui Alvarado scored three times, and Jen Tamindzija went 2-for-2 with two runs scored as the Warriors improved to 41-1.
Lesley's Jenna Fralick (Woburn, MA/Woburn), Allison Fountain (Cheshire, CT/Cheshire) and Nicole Mercurio (Wakefield, MA/Wakefield) all went 1-for-2 in the loss. Fountain scored the Lynx lone run, which was driven in on a Mercurio fourth-inning single during an epic battle with Rathburn won by the Lesley sophomore.
The Warriors plated an unearned run in the first, when with two outs Arielle Cooper reached on a Fralick error, stole second and scored on a Sarah Apgar (Andover, NJ/Lenape) error off the bat of cleanup hitter Megan Godwin. With two outs in the second, a Priscilla Alicea double off the right-center field wall scored two, and Alicea came around on a Rathburn single up the middle to make it a 4-0 game after two.
Eastern, ranked No. 2 in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Coaches Poll, chipped away for four more in the third. An Alvarado pinch-hit single scored a run, as did the singles that followed from Kelly Patterson and Alicea. With the score 7-0 and one out, a pair of pop outs wrapped around a bases-loaded walk left the score 8-0 after three.
Fountain broke up Rathburn's no-hit bid with one out in the fourth, dropping a single into left-center and stealing second. With a full count, two outs and Fountain now in scoring position, back-to-back reigning NECC Player of the Week Mercurio capped an 11-pitch at-bat with a single down the line in left to score Fountain, putting the Lynx on the board at 8-1.
After junior left-hander Mary Dembinski (Venice, FL/Venice) came on in relief for the Lynx, a Jessica Guevara (Nantucket, MA/Nantucket) error at second base and an illegal pitch aided the Warriors in scoring two runs on one hit in the fourth to make it a 10-1 game, which would be the final.
Cassandra Knox (Sea Cliff, NY/North Shore) fell to 10-6 with the loss, allowing eight runs but only five earned, as four Lynx infield errors led to three unearned Warriors runs.
Lesley will now take on Ithaca College, the region's No. 4 seed, which suffered an eight-inning, 2-1 loss to Coast Guard today at 1:00 p.m. In the Lynx season opener on March 12, Lesley lost to Ithaca by the score of 7-6 in Clermont, FL.
