Michon, Woods lift Eastern to 1-0 win in Sub Regional opener

Mansfield — A pair of local players have helped put Eastern Connecticut State University's softball team just a win away from a trip to the NCAA Division III World Series.

Montville's Alexis Michon pitched complete-game four-hitter and Fitch's Cassie Woods drove in the game's only run with a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Warriors a 1-0 victory over Randolph-Macon (Va.) in the opening game of the best-of-three Sub Regional series on Friday.

The Warriors (42-5), ranked third in the nation, can sweep the series when the two teams meet again on Saturday at 10 a.m., with a deciding third game, if necessary, to follow at 12:30 p.m. The winner advances to the Division III World Series from May 26-31 in Salem, Va.

Michon (22-1) walked two and struckout 11 in pitching her 13th complete game for ECSU (she lowered her ERA to 0.97) while Woods, batting leadoff, went 2-for-3, lining the first pitch she saw to left-center in the bottom of the eighth to score Alyssa Vilchez with the game-winning run. Vilchez led off the inning with a single and was bunted to second by Carolyn Biel.

Baseball

• ECSU, the top-ranked team in the country, opened play in the

NCAA Division III Rochester (N.Y.) Regional with a 10-7 win over Swarthmore (Pa). East Lyme's Matt Malcom went 2-for-4 with an RBI single for the the Warriors (40-3), who will play Middlebury in the winners' bracket final today at 2:30 p.m.

Notes

• Coast Guard Academy's Logan Tobias has been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District 2 team. Tobias, the valedictorian of the Class of 2022 that graduated on Wednesday, was a captain of the men's lacrosse team and had a 3.99 GPA as a Government major.

• UConn Avery Point women's basketball player Adeline Smith has been selected as one of 39 student-athletes across the country to be recognized by the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators (NATYCAA) as a part of its 2022 Scholar-Athlete Team. Niantic's Smith collected honorable mention laurels after posting a 3.83 cumulative grade point average through her first three semesters.

• Fitchburg State's Adam Kirsch, a senior pitcher from New London, finished his season with a 2-1 record and 29 strikeouts in 31 innings.