ST. AUGUSTINE â€" Florida Southern’s first trip to the First Coast produced a first for Brittany Minton, a perfect night for Angela Williams and a career performance by Natalie Lang. Minton tossed a no-hitter in Friday’s opener, Williams went five-for-five with two walks altogether, and Lang had five hits and seven RBI in the doubleheader as the Moccasins swept Armstrong Atlantic State, 10-0 and 8-0.
Playing in the oldest city in the United States, against a team nick-named the Pirates… well, there was plenty of booty to go around. The Moccasins (9-1) had 12 hits in game one and 11 more in game two, and both games were decided in five innings by the eight-run rule. The Mocs didn’t even bat in the fifth inning of the second one.
In addition to the big games by Williams and Lang, the Mocs also saw Peggy Alex go three-for-four with one RBI, walk twice and score five runs. She too would have had a perfect night if not for pitcher Britton Hammel-Cole, who caught a smash hit right back at her in game two and turned it into a double play that prevented at least one run from scoring.
Lindsey Powell had four hits (two in each game) with one RBI, Sara Lovestrand went three-for-five with two walks and scored four runs, and Heather Raulerson had three RBI.
Minton came close to pitching a no-hitter in her first game as a Moccasin in 2008, only to give up a rolling infield single that stopped on the first base line. This time she got it with little difficulty. The only base runner against her came when Baillie Temples reached on an error to start the bottom of the first. She was quickly erased when the Pirates tried to bunt her to second, only to have third baseman Ashley Hunt catch the ball in mid-air and turn a double play. Sam Floyd then hit a hard grounder to Hunt who fired across the diamond for the third out.
After that, the Pirates (10-6) went three-up, three-down in their final four at-bats with Minton striking out four along the way. It was the first no-hitter by a Moccasin pitcher since Megan Brown had one in another five-inning game at Eckerd in 2007. The win gives Minton a 5-0 record this year with a 0.69 earned run average.
By the time Minton took the field on Friday, the Moccasins had already given her two runs in the top of the first. Both came off the bat of Williams, who crushed a 3-2 pitch to straight away center for her third home run of the season. It brought in Alex, who had tripled earlier in the inning.
The Mocs then blew the game open when they batted around and scored four runs in the top of the third. Alex and Williams were in the middle of that one too. After Lovestrand singled to lead off the inning, Alex drew a walk and Powell bunted both of them into scoring position. The Pirates wanted no part of Williams after her earlier home run, electing to intentionally walk her instead, but Lang foiled the strategy with a two-run double to deep left. After Williams scored on a wild pitch, Raulerson singled in Lang to give the Mocs a 6-0 lead.
When Armstrong Atlantic went to the bullpen to start the fourth inning, Lovestrand greeted the Pirates’ new pitcher with her second home run of the season. Alex followed with a walk (her second of the game), Powell and Williams singled to load the bases, and a base hit by Lang made it 8-0.
Florida Southern added two more runs in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by Powell and Lang. It was Lang’s third hit of the game and her fourth RBI; the four runs batted in tied a career-high from her freshman year against Wayne State (MI).
Just as they did in the opener, the Moccasins again jumped on the Pirates early in game two, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first and three more in the third en route to the 8-0 win. Big surprise â€" Williams and Lang were in the middle of it all.
The Mocs’ first run came when Lovestrand tripled off the fence in right center and Alex followed with a base hit down the right field line. Two batters later, Williams reached on an infield single and Lang followed that with a base hit up the middle that made it 2-0. A fly ball by Elli Howell was deep enough to score Williams and the Mocs were off and running once again.
Two innings later, the Mocs got back-to-back singles from Powell and Williams to start the frame and Lang hit a one-bouncer back to pitcher Britton Hammel-Cobb. She elected to go to third for the lead runner, but Powell out-raced third baseman Lauren Zachary to the bag and the Pirates got no one. Howell then hit another fly ball to right, this one too shallow to produce a run, but Powell scored anyway when the throw back to the infield skipped toward the Pirate dugout. A single by Raulerson later brought in Williams and Lang.
The Mocs needed just one more at-bat to put the game away as Alex and Powell singled, and Williams walked to load the bases for Lang in the fourth. She delivered yet again, with a two-run single that gave the Moccasins their final two runs.
Morgan Brown and Christine Clark combined on the shutout, with each pitcher allowing only one hit. Brown (4-1) went the first four innings for the win. Baillie Temples had Armstrong Atlantic’s only hit off Brown, an infield single leading off the game. On the first pitch to the Pirates’ next batter though, Raulerson threw Temples out attempting to steal. Brown would then walk Stephanie Mattes, but Lang tracked down a fly ball to deep left for out number two, then threw back to Lovestrand at short who in turn doubled up Mattes for the final out of the inning.
Clark entered the game to start the top of the fifth and gave up a leadoff single to Ashley Buckett, but struck out the next three Pirate hitters to end the game. The freshman has yet to give up a run in her 10 innings pitched this year.
Florida Southern will play another doubleheader in St. Augustine on Saturday, facing Georgia Southwestern at noon.
