LAKELAND â€" Brittany Minton’s pitching kept the Panthers off the scoreboard Monday night, and her glove played a role in the shutout too. So did the arm of Heather Raulerson; and while Sara Lovestrand and Peggy Alex had nothing to do with the shutout per se, their hitting accounted for a big chunk of the offense as Florida Southern downed Florida Tech 7-0 in the first of their three-game series.
Minton combined with Morgan Brown to limit Florida Tech to only four hits, while Florida Southern (37-11, 15-4) scored four runs in the second inning and three more in the fourth to win for the 10th time in the last 11 games. Lovestrand and Alex were in the middle of both innings, as was Elli Howell, who started the second with a double and essentially ended the fourth with another two-base hit.
The combined shutout lifted Minton’s record to 14-6, as she struck out seven, walked none and gave up three hits in five innings of work. Florida Tech (16-19, 4-9) had two on against her in the top of the first, but Minton got out of trouble when she struck out Tyler Miller to end the inning. Reanna Witt then singled leading off the top of the second, but Raulerson threw her out attempting to steal, and Minton got two more strikeouts to end that threat as well. It was only the third time in 32 attempts the Panthers had been caught this year, but it pushed Raulerson’s percentage of throwing out runners to nearly 50 percent.
After Florida Southern had scored four runs in the bottom of the second, Florida Tech tried to get back in the game when Danielle Healy led off the top of the third with a base hit to left. She wasn’t on base long, however, as Minton crushed any potential rally with a big defensive play. The Panthers’ next batter, Brittany Memoli hit a line drive back to the circle that Minton grabbed with the end of her glove for the out. With no one at first base, she then completed an unassisted double play by out-racing Healy to the bag after the Panther base runner had broken for second on the line drive.
That was the first of 12 straight hitters retired by Minton and Brown, all of them on strikeouts, ground balls or infield pop-ups. The Panthers ended the string when Sasha Stepaniuk snuck a ground ball up the middle for a one-out single in the top of the seventh before Brown retired the final two hitters for the Moccasins’ 15th shutout of the season.
The Moccasins had 12 hits off Florida Tech pitching, which included two apiece from Lovestrand, Howell and Angela Williams. It was Howell’s double that started the four-run second, an inning that was kept alive when Dani Blake was hit by a pitch with two out. That brought Lovestrand to the plate and she singled sharply just past the Florida Tech shortstop to bring in Howell with the first run. Alex then doubled into the left centerfield gap and later scored on an error to give the Mocs a 4-0 lead.
Two innings later, Lovestrand led off with another single and Alex followed with a ground ball to short. The Panthers elected to go for the lead runner, but Lovestrand beat the throw and Alex hustled down the line to just beat the relay to first. It turned out to be a big play as Florida Tech pitcher Tiffani Bishop got the Mocs’ next two hitters before Natalie Lang singled into short center to drive in both Lovestrand and Alex. Howell followed with another hit and the Mocs were up 7-0.
The Mocs had a chance to win by the eight-run rule in the sixth inning when pinch-hitters Bethany Boomer and Samantha Barker both singled, but Bishop kept them on base to keep the game alive.
The same teams will play again on Tuesday at Barnett Field in a doubleheader beginning at 6:00 p.m.
