Box Score BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Junior Kylie Mulholland had two hits and delivered the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning to push the LIU Brooklyn softball team to a 4-3 victory over Bryant on the first day of action at the Northeast Conference Tournament on Thursday. The victory extends LIU's winning streak to 15 and advances the top-seeded Blackbirds into the winner's bracket where they will take on No. 2 Saint Francis U. on Friday, May 13 at 10:00 a.m.

LIU Brooklyn got off to a hot start in the bottom of the first inning, as senior Whitney West led off the game with a single to right. After a pop out and ground out, newly-crowned NEC Player of the Year Celinna Cosio ripped an RBI double down the left-field line to put the home team on top, 1-0.

Mulholland continued the early rally, going right back up the middle on a 1-2 offering from Bryant pitcher Elle Madsen for a base hit to score Cosio and up the margin to 2-0.

The Bulldogs came back with an unearned run in the top of the second and another in the third to tie the game, before the Blackbirds jumped back in front in the bottom of the fourth. Sophomore Angie Vazquez began the frame with a line-drive single to center, then pinch runner Alyssa Lanktree-Dotson advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.

A ground ball moved Lanktree-Dotson to third, before a wild pitch from Madsen allowed the junior from Florida to come home and give LIU a 3-2 advantage.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Madsen jumped on a 1-1 pitch from NEC Pitcher of the Year Erynn Sobieski and knotted the game with a solo home run over the fence in left-centerfield.

With the score tied at 3-3, senior Ariana Lopez blooped a one-out single into left-centerfield in the bottom of the fifth inning. Sophomore Victoria Zamora was hit by a pitch to put two on with one out and, following a fly out, Mulholland came through with a clutch two-out single to left to plate pinch runner Shelley Procter and once again give the top seed a one-run cushion.

Sobieski took over from there, retiring the last six batters she faced including three straight strikeouts in the top of the seventh inning that closed out her 18th victory of the year.

West also had two hits for the Blackbirds, who improved to 32-4 at home in Northeast Conference Tournament play.