DANBURY, Conn. 5/6/11 – The Keene State College softball team fell to top seeded and nationally ranked Eastern Conn. State University, 7-2 on Friday afternoon on day two of the Little East Conference Championship Tournament at Westside Field. With the loss, the Owls are knocked out of the tournament and await a possible NCAA or ECAC Tournament bid.

"Eastern Connecticut continues to show me that they are a great team," said KSC head coach Charlie Beach. "We walked some people today to put the runners on base, but they had some timely hitting."

The Warriors (28-4) jumped out to a 4-0 lead with two runs in the bottom half of the second and third innings. Left-fielder Stephanie Johnson (Plantsville, Conn.) singled down the left field line and right fielder Priscilla Alicea (Stratford, Conn.) beat out a double-play ball to collect Eastern's RBI's in the second. In the third, third baseman Arielle Cooper (Mystic, Conn.) homered to right-center field to put the home team up 4-0.

Keene State did their damage in the top of the fourth. Junior Courtney Savoie (Stratham, N.H.) knocked home the Owls first run on a sacrifice fly, but advanced to second on an error by the Warriors centerfielder. Three batters later, number nine hitter Jessica Fiorenza (Wakefield, Mass.) doubled down the left field line to score Savoie and cut the lead to 4-2.

But that is all the KSC offense would muster, while the Warrior's would tack on three more runs on shortstop Megan Godwin's (Manchester, Conn.) two RBI hits, and first baseman Kelly Patterson (Southington, Conn.) would score on a passed ball for the 7-2 ECSU victory.

Junior Sara Stocklinski (Newton, N.J.), who started on the mound for the Owls, had two hits for KSC out of the number two slot. On the mound, she pitched two innings allowing four runs on only two hits but walked five batters in her first loss of the season (11-1). Also garnering multiple hits for KSC was junior Samantha Pratt (Bristol, Conn.) with her two-for-three effort in the loss.

Junior starter Molly Rathbun (Hebron, Conn.) went the distance, allowing eight hits and two runs on 12 strikeouts in the victory (17-0). Also contributing at the plate, she had a hit and two walks. Godwin was the lone Warrior to register multiple hits in the game for Eastern with her two-for-four day with two RBI's.

Eastern Conn. advances to play the winner of Rhode Island College and Western Conn. State at 6p.m. tonight.