CARROLLTON, GA â€" Angela Williams had a game to remember in Florida Southern’s first game Saturday, but the Moccasins had an inning they’d like to forget in the second one. Williams hit two home runs and had six RBI to lead the Mocs to a 9-4 win over West Georgia, but the Mocs lost to West Alabama 5-3 when the Tigers scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Williams is a three-time First Team All-SSC designated player for the Moccasins, and Saturday’s game against host West Georgia in the Wolves Invitational was one of the best of her career. With a double and two home runs, Williams set a school record with 10 total bases and became the eighth player in team history with two homers in one game. That moved her into sole possession of second place on the school’s career home run list with 14, with six of those coming this year.
Williams got the Moccasins going early, doubling in Sara Lovestrand with the first run of the game in the top of the first inning. The score remained 1-0 until the third inning when Peggy Alex walked, Lindsey Powell singled and Williams brought both of them in with a three-run homer.
West Georgia (12-7) cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the fourth, an inning in which the Wolves picked up three of their four hits off Christine Clark. Lindsay Ellenburg and Heather Crews reached on consecutive singles to start the frame, and Crews later stole second. Kara Pollock then hit a sharp grounder toward the middle of the infield that Alex made a diving effort to stop, but it deflected off her glove as Ellenburg and Crews both scored.
Leading 4-2, the Moccasins blew the game open with five runs in the top of the sixth. Lovestrand nearly hit one out of the park to start the inning, with the ball caught deep in the leftfield corner, and the Moccasins followed that with six straight hits. Alex and Powell had the first two, with Alex scoring on Powell’s hit when it was misplayed in right field. The error didn’t matter. Williams hit her second home run of the game right after that, a towering two-run shot to left center that gave her six RBI.
The Mocs weren’t finished scoring either. Natalie Lang came up after Williams and hit her second double of the game, and Elli Howell followed with her fourth single. Lang then scored on a double by Ashley Hunt and Howell came home on a single by Dani Blake.
West Georgia scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, one of them coming on a home run by Pollock, before the Mocs could get the final out of the game.
Clark earned the win for Florida Southern by pitching the first six innings, allowing two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and a walk.
Florida Southern finished with a season-high 18 hits in the game, with Powell and Howell each going four-for-four in addition to the three hits by Williams.
The Moccasins (17-5) got off to a good start in their second game too, also taking a 1-0 lead against West Alabama (16-2) in the top of the first. Lovestrand singled leading off and took second on an error by the Tigers’ left fielder. That allowed her to score when Powell later dropped a single down the right field line.
Lovestrand again led off in the top of the third, this time with a walk that turned into Florida Southern’s second run when Williams singled hard off the fence in right center. Williams then doubled and scored on an error in the sixth inning to give the Mocs a 3-0 lead.
The bottom half of the sixth proved disastrous, however, starting with a ball hit by Ashley Edgar that slipped just inside the first base line for a single. It was only the third hit of the game for the Tigers, but their first of four in the sixth inning. Laura Bagwell bunted her into scoring position and an outfield error then put runners at second and third. Kelli Hartley then doubled into right center, brining both runners home and cutting the Mocs’ lead to 3-2.
Clark entered the game at that point in relief of Morgan Brown, who’d allowed only two hits through the first five innings and had retired 12 in a row at one point during that stretch. Clark got ahead 0-2 quickly on Valisha Fincher, but the Tigers’ #5 hitter was able to bloop a single over infield that brought in Hartley with the tying run, still with only one out.
After a walk to Courtney Gordon, Emily White singled in Fincher and the Tigers’ final run scored on a wild pitch.
The Moccasins did not go quietly in their final at-bat. Bethany Boomer nearly beat out a grounder to first before pinch-hitter Karlyn Scott walked to bring Lovestrand to the plate. The Moccasin shortstop singled into centerfield and when the Tigers tried to throw Scott out at third, Lovestrand took second to give FSC two runners in scoring position with only one out. Relief pitcher Jessica Cervantes was able to get two strikeouts though to end the game.
Cervantes was the fourth pitcher used by West Alabama and earned her third save of the season. Brittany McGee got the win to improve to 4-1 while holding the Mocs to one unearned run on two hits in three innings of relief.
Florida Southern, which went 4-3 on its trip to Georgia, will play its next three games in Winter Park against Rollins College. That Sunshine State Conference series begins with a single game Friday night at 7:00.
