LAKELAND â€" Christine Clark and Heather Raulerson were a winning combination for Florida Southern in its doubleheader with Florida Tech on Wednesday. Clark did the pitching. Raulerson did the catching â€" and the throwing and the hitting too. That helped the Moccasins take game one by a score of 4-1, before a host of players did all the same things for a 7-1 win in game two.
The two wins gave the Mocs (39-11, 17-4) a rain-delayed series sweep of the Panthers (16-21, 4-11) and put them in position to win the Sunshine State Conference title next week in their final series at Tampa. They also strengthened their hold on the #2 spot in the new NCAA South Region rankings which were announced Wednesday afternoon. Including a non-conference doubleheader with Flagler this Saturday, the Mocs have just five regular season games remaining, and may need to win them all in order to maintain their possible seeding for the postseason.
They did what they needed to do on Wednesday, as the Mocs won for the 12th time in the last 13 games. Clark held the Panthers to just four hits in game one while allowing only an unearned run in the fourth inning. The freshman struck out six, walked no one and her record to 13-3. That includes an 8-0 mark in conference play. Two of the four hits she allowed were infield singles.
The Moccasins were able to push across a first-inning run when Sara Lovestrand doubled, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Peggy Alex and scored on a ground ball by Lindsey Powell. For a while it looked like that might be enough too, as Clark set down nine of the first 10 Florida Tech batters before Brooke Fisher led off the top of the fourth with a bloop single into short right center.
The Mocs had a chance to erase Fisher but an error gave the Panthers runners at first and second with none out. Dani Healy then singled her in with two out and the game was tied at one.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Mocs got a one-out single from Elli Howell, who took second when the ball was bobbled in the outfield for an error. Two batters later, Raulerson drove a pitch to deep left that went for an RBI double and the Mocs had re-taken the lead. After Dani Blake singled and Lovestrand was intentionally walked, the bases were loaded, but Fisher made a leaping catch at second base on a line drive hit by Alex, and the Mocs had to settle for only one run in the inning.
With the score still 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Moccasins took advantage of two Florida Tech errors to score two insurance runs. The first error put Howell at second to start the inning, and the second one came with Raulerson batting and allowed Howell to score. A single by Lovestrand made it 4-1 before Alex was robbed of a second hit when pitcher Brianna Barth grabbed another line drive.
The Panthers got the leadoff runner on in the top of the seventh when Healy picked up her second hit of the game, but Raulerson gunned her down trying to steal second. It was the second time in the series the Moccasin catcher threw out a Florida Tech base runner after the Panthers had been thrown out only twice all year before Monday. The sophomore has thrown out 10-of-21 for the season, the best percentage in the SSC.
While Clark earned the win, it was another difficult loss for Barth. After dropping a 1-0, 15-inning decision to Tampa at the end of March and a 1-0, 12-inning decision to Eckerd the first weekend of April, Barth lost this one by giving up just two earned runs to the highest scoring team in the conference. The sophomore gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked two as she fell to 7-9.
One of the seven hits she allowed was a bunt single by Angela Williams in the first inning that gave the 3-time All-SSC designated player 200 hits for her career.
In game two, the Moccasins did all of their scoring in the first two innings while Brittany Minton gave up just two hits in five innings to earn the win. The 7-1 victory featured 12 hits, including three from Natalie Lang who also drove in three runs, two from Alex and Powell, and a two-run homer from Lovestrand.
The Mocs took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Alex and Powell reached on back-to-back one-out singles and later scored on a base hit by Lang. The Panthers cut it to 2-1 half an inning later when Tyler Miller reached on a two-base throwing error and came home on a fly ball by Holly McChesney.
The score didn’t stay that way very long. With one out in the bottom of the second, the Moccasins put seven straight hitters on base and five of them came around to score. Blake started the uprising with a bunt single and Lovestrand followed with her tenth home run of the season. Alex and Powell then hit back-to-back triples to make it a 5-1 game. After a walk to Angela Williams (one of her three in the game), Lang and Howell each came up with RBI singles to give Florida Southern its six-run lead.
While Florida Southern did not score the rest of the game, Minton and Heidi Schumacher kept Florida Tech from scoring again as well. Minton earned her 15th win of the season, striking out two and walking two in addition to giving up just two hits in five innings.
Florida Tech finished with five hits in the game, three of them by Barth.
Florida Southern will host Flagler in a doubleheader on Saturday at 1:00 p.m., the final regular season home games for the Moccasins in 2009.
