LAKELAND â€" It took 24 years to break the school’s season home run record, and Sara Lovestrand is making sure it will be even more difficult to break the next time around. The senior shortstop added another one to her total Thursday night, giving 16th-ranked Florida Southern a boost on its way to a 9-1 victory over Lynn.
The Moccasins (34-11, 12-4) led 2-1 going into the bottom of the fourth inning when they sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs to take charge of the game. Lovestrand had the biggest hit of the inning, a 3-run homer to left center that put the Mocs ahead 6-1. It was her ninth home run of the season and came less than a week after she’d already set a school record in that department. It was also the Moccasins' 25th home run as a team, breaking the old mark of 24 they'd set in 2006.
The Mocs hit the ball hard most of the night, and had nine hits before the game was stopped by the eight-run rule in the bottom of the fifth. Lovestrand, Dani Blake and Elli Howell all had two hits and were part of not only a four-run fourth inning, but a three-run fifth as well. They could have done even more damage if not for the play of Lynn second baseman Meghan Osborne, who put on quite a display in the field by robbing Florida Southern of three hits and several potential runs.
The Knights’ all-time hit leader got started in the bottom of the first when she made a leaping catch on a line drive hit by Lindsey Powell. She later took hits away from Blake and Heather Raulerson, even though the Mocs scored a run on each of those plays.
The game was scoreless in the bottom of the second inning when Angela Williams singled and stole second before Natalie Lang walked. Williams was caught stealing third, but Lang made it safely to second and scored on a double by Howell. After a wild pitch and a walk put runners at first and third, Raulerson hit a ball between first and second that nearly got through, but Osborne dove to her left, stopped it, and made an under-hand flip to first baseman Rachael Larkins for the out. Howell was able to score, but the Knights were able to complete a double play when Larkins threw out Ashley Hunt at third.
The Knights (14-21, 0-11) put together three straight hits in the top of the third to score their only run, with Osborne involved in that too. Her double was the first of those hits and she later scored on a base hit by Amber Havnar. Those three hits, however, were the only ones allowed by Moccasin pitcher Christine Clark, who ran her record to 11-3 with the complete game victory.
She got some breathing room in the fourth. Lang led off with a single and after Howell reached on an error, Raulerson singled to load the bases with one out. It looked like Blake would get another single with a hard-hit ball up the middle, but Osborne was there again to knock it down and get the force out at second. The Mocs still got a run out of it though as Lang easily scored, and they got three more on the very next pitch when Lovestrand hit one out of the park.
Florida Southern then put the game away in the fifth inning. The Mocs loaded the bases when Howell singled, Raulerson was hit by a pitch and Blake also singled. The first two scored when a pop-up into short leftfield was dropped for an error and bounced all the way toward the Moccasin bullpen. That also allowed Blake to advance to third and she scored immediately thereafter on a passed ball.
Florida Southern and Lynn play again Friday afternoon with a doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m.
