MELBOURNE â€" Brittaney Alderman will never forget the first Sunshine State Conference game of her career, but unfortunately for her and the rest of the Florida Southern Moccasins, they won’t remember a win. Alderman was dazzling for 14 innings, but the Moccasins stranded 14 base runners before Florida Tech broke through in the bottom of the 15th for a 1-0 win.
A freshman from George Jenkins High School, Alderman scattered nine hits, struck out 14 and walked three, but suffered her second straight extra-inning loss. At one point in Friday’s game, Alderman retired 16 consecutive batters, but during that same time, the Moccasins (4-3, 0-1) left six runners on base. The Panthers (8-5, 1-0) finally ended the string with a walk and a single in the bottom of the 13th, but Alderman got a ground ball to third to end the threat.
Two innings later, the Panthers found a way to score, ending Florida Southern’s longest game in nine years. Danielle Healy led off the bottom of the 15th with a double into the right centerfield gap and the Panthers bunted her to third. That brought the #9 hitter to the plate in Brooke Fisher. If there was anyone in the Florida Tech lineup who had Alderman’s number, it was Fisher, who followed two earlier hits with the game-winning single to deep center over the drawn-in Florida Southern outfield.
For every shutout inning Alderman threw, Florida Tech pitcher Tiffani Bishop matched her. Bishop was eventually lifted though after 13 innings, and despite not allowing a run during all that time, was rewarded with a no-decision. She allowed 12 hits, but worked out of trouble in nearly every inning with the aid of 11 strikeouts and a couple of big plays from Fisher at shortstop. Brianna Barth pitched the final two innings for the win, allowing one hit with four strikeouts.
Both teams had five base runners in the first five innings, and both teams missed out on opportunities to score. The Moccasins got singles from Bethany Boomer and Lindsey Powell in the top of the first, but stranded both runners. They also wasted leadoff doubles by Powell in the fourth and Dezirae Parsons in the fifth, and had another runner in the second inning thrown out stealing.
Florida Tech’s story was much the same. After stranding a runner at third in the bottom of the first, they got leadoff singles in the second, third and fourth innings, but were unable to get any of those runners into scoring position. Twice the Panthers popped up sacrifice bunts, and the Mocs turned one of those into an inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the sixth, Florida Tech threatened again when Barth fisted a single into short left for her second hit of the game. Again Alderman kept the game scoreless when she got Kara Dickinson to line into a double play that brought that inning to a close too.
Florida Tech’s frustration to that point in the game was nothing compared to that felt by Florida Southern from the seventh through the eleventh innings. In each of those five frames, the Moccasins had at least one base runner, and in three of them, they had two. Boomer had leadoff singles in both the eighth and tenth, and each time a sacrifice by Peggy Alex moved her into scoring position. However, the Mocs left her there in the eighth, and in the tenth, Boomer was thrown out at the plate by Fisher after Elli Howell had dropped a two-out single into short left.
Much earlier in the game, Fisher also kept the Mocs from scoring when she snared a line drive hit by Boomer for the final out of the fifth. Parsons had doubled to start that inning, but was left at third when Fisher made a lunging catch of a ball that was nearly by her and into the outfield.
Boomer had three of Florida Southern’s 13 hits in the game, while Powell, Howell, Parsons and Heather Raulerson all had two, but the Moccasins went one-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
Florida Southern and Florida Tech complete their three-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon.
