KEENE, N.H.--Kayla Votto's two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning proved vital as the No. 1 seed Keene State College softball team topped sixth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University, 5-3, in the opening game of the Little East Conference softball championship.

Records

• Keene State: 21-14
• Eastern Connecticut State: 15-24

Up Next

• Keene State will host the rest of the tournament, starting at 11 am on Friday, May 6.  The Owls will play No. 3 seed Southern Maine at 1 p.m.  
• The Colonials will play the loser of UMass Dartmouth and UMass Boston in the day's first game.  The Beacons and Corsairs were postponed until May 4.

How It Happened

• Keene State scored in each of the first three innings, and Mariah Crisp tossed a complete game with five strikeouts.  Votto, Stephanie Long, and Jen Galavotti each had two hits.
• The Warriors got a pair of hits each from Samantha Bardos and Summer Cipriani.  ECSU starter Samantha Valentine lasted just 1.2 innings, allowing two runs and three hits.  Cipriani went the rest of the way in the circle, giving up three runs in 4.1 innings of work.
• Long led off the bottom of the first with a double to the wall in left center, and moved to third on Votto's sacrifice bunt.  Heather Pelletier brought in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly to deep right field.
• KSC tacked on a second run in the second inning, as Galavotti hit a lead off double, moved to third on Olivia Indorf's groundout, and scored when Brittany DaMota's single hit back off Valentine and into no-man's land in shallow right.  Votto made it 3-0 in the third, reaching on an infield single and scoring on a throwing error by ECSU.
• The Owls increased the lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth; Long singled up the middle and promptly stole second, and Votto crushed the ball over the left field fence for her second home run of the season.
• The homerun was critical, as the Warriors rallied for three runs in the sixth. Samantha Rentz led off with a single to let, and moved up on Gina Georgetti's single to center.  Cipriani then hit her second homer of the year, a three run shot to right-center. 
• Crisp did not let the Warriors back in it after that, getting the next two batters to foul out to third base.  The senior then set the Warriors down in order, striking out pinch hitter Emily Komornik to end the contest.