By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – Whenever your scholastic softball squad can rack up a victory over Southington, it’s a very big deal.

And the squad from Bristol Eastern was able to topple the state power, snaring a 3-1 win against the Knights in a showdown from the softball field on King Street (Lancerdome).

And the Lancers (1-1) off a tough showing at Berlin on Saturday, were eager to pick up their first win of the campaign.

Eastern’s Ali Tellier (six strikeouts) did all the work from the mound, chucking a one-hitter, while teammate Alex Shorette nabbed the game-winning hit – a two-RBI single in the fourth frame to give Eastern the lead for good.

Tellier also did a little work from the plate, going 1-for-3 with a stolen base, as Eastern made its offensive contributions count over the fourth inning of play.

Julia Panarella drew the loss for Southington, falling to 1-1 on the campaign.

Also for the Lancers, Jasmine Perez went 2-of-3 with a run scored and catcher Janessa Gonzalez had a huge double to pace the Eastern offense.

But this game was about defense and when the ball was hit around the field, Eastern was up to the task – taking away hits and snuffing out potential game-starting drives over the seven-inning battle.

“[The] team defense was much improved with Shorette running balls down in the outfield, Jennifer Black with a big catch, and the infield locked in all day,” said Eastern coach Scott Redman via Twitter.

And all the offense in the contest came during the first and fourth frames.

In the top of the first, Southington’s Ashlyn Dosaulniers, who generated the only hit for the visitors in the second stanza, walked – one of three in the inning – stole second, moved to third via a base-on-balls.

And with the bases loaded, Dosaulniers eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it a 1-0 contest.

Tellier then got out the bases-loaded jam to end the first and eventually retired seven batters in a row as Eastern was still looking for its first big hit of the game.

That 1-0 push carried into the bottom of the fourth frame where Eastern put away the game for good.

Riley Giblin walked, Perez singled while Jazmyn Brown also drew a base-on-balls to juice the bases.

And Giblin and Perez both scored on Shorette’s single to center, helping Eastern snare a 2-1 lead.

It was a huge game-winning blast by Shorette but the Lancers were not done in the inning.

To add a little insurance, Browne then crossed the plate on an Ashley Serafin groundout to first base as Eastern’s edge was pushed to 3-1 going into the fifth stanza.

But that was all Tellier needed in the end for offensive support from her teammates.

In the fifth, two batters walked but neither scored and even after committing an error in both the sixth and seventh innings, Tellier and the defense shut the game down as Eastern was off to the pay window via the 3-1 win over Southington from Bristol.

CCC Interdivisional Softball

BRISTOL EASTERN 3, SOUTHINGTON 1

from the softball field on King Street, Bristol

Southington (1-1)      100 000 0 – 1 1 2

Bristol Eastern (1-1)   000 300 x – 3 5 2

WP – Allie Tellier (BE); LP – Julia Panarella (S).

Southington Batting

2B – None

3B – None

HR – None

Bristol Eastern Batting

2B – None

3B – Janessa Gonzalez

HR – None

Records: Bristol Eastern 1-1; Southington 1-1