LAKELAND â€" Thursday night’s doubleheader against Hillsdale may not have been the most graceful ever played at Barnett Field, but the final results were acceptable nonetheless â€" at least for Florida Southern. Hillsdale, on the other hand, is left to wonder what might have been. In game one, the Moccasins took advantage of five Charger errors before Bethany Boomer’s game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh gave them an 8-7 win. In game two, the Mocs got two RBI singles from Brittaney Alderman and strong pitching from Christine Clark for a 5-1 victory.
The Moccasins (15-10) and Chargers (5-3) combined for nine errors in the opener, as well as three hit batters and three wild pitches. The Mocs made all four of their errors in the first two innings, then settled down to take a 7-2 lead by scoring twice in the third and five times in the fourth. Both of those innings featured run-scoring hits by Erin Foley, and both were helped by Hillsdale errors. Even then, however, the Mocs couldn’t rest comfortably.
In the top of the fifth, the Chargers got a 3-run homer from Jessica Guertin to jump right back in the game. They got two more runs in the top of the sixth without even getting a hit.
With Alderman pitching for Florida Southern, Hillsdale (MI) started the sixth inning with three consecutive walks, forcing the Mocs to bring relief pitcher Morgan Brown into a tough situation. Brown got an out at the plate on a fielder’s choice, but hit Jennifer Berlet to force in a run. Guertin then flied out to right, but the ball was hit deep enough to bring in another run, leaving the game tied at seven.
It was still that way in the bottom of the seventh when Dani Blake reached base on a one-out double. After moving to third on a ground out by pinch-hitter Elli Howell, Blake scored the winning run on Boomer’s single to left.
Boomer was also part of the other two innings in which Florida Southern scored, reaching on an error to start the third, and picking up a base hit in the fourth. That helped the Mocs bounce back from a 2-0 deficit after Hillsdale had scored twice in the top of the first inning on Florida Southern errors.
The Mocs eventually tied it on back-to-back RBI singles by Foley and Alderman in the third, then took the lead on a two-run single by Foley in the fourth inning. Christine Clark and Heather Raulerson also had run-scoring hits in that inning to give Florida Southern its 7-2 lead that didn’t last long.
Brown ended up with the win for Florida Southern, her second of the season without a defeat. Laura Homan took the loss for Hillsdale, despite giving up only two earned runs in 6.2 innings. The Mocs reached her for 10 hits, while Homan struck out one and walked two.
In game two, Alderman had RBI singles in each of her first two at-bats, giving the Mocs a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and driving in the final run of a three-run third. Each time, those hits scored Boomer, who went two-for-three in the game and four-for-eight in the doubleheader.
Boomer and Foley also drove in runs, and another scored on an error in the fifth inning that gave the Mocs a 5-0 lead.
Foley’s RBI single in the third was a bit unusual. The Mocs had already scored once in the inning when Foley came to the plate with Boomer at second and two out. Foley hit a ground ball down to third that Guertin dove for and stopped; while still on her knees, Guertin didn’t get much on her throw across the diamond, allowing Foley to reach first with an infield hit. Meanwhile, Boomer never stopped running and was able to score all the way from second. When the Chargers tried to throw her out at the plate, it only allowed Foley to take second, from where she then scored on Alderman’s second hit of the game.
Hillsdale scored its only run of the game in the top of the sixth when Guertin singled and later came home on a Florida Southern error. It prevented Clark from recording her second shutout of the season, but it didn’t prevent a win. The sophomore went the distance to improve to 5-6, giving up just five hits, striking out four and walking one.
Hillsdale fell to 0-9 all-time against Florida Southern, but lost on a walk-off hit for the second year in a row. The Chargers had been run-ruled by the Moccasins four of the previous five times they met before that, a measure of how far they've come in a short span. They also began their trip to Florida with a sweep of Barry on Wednesday, and will get a chance to play two more teams from the Sunshine State Conference on Friday (Eckerd) and Saturday (Rollins).
Florida Southern is off for the weekend before hosting Rollins in a three-game series next week. The two teams shared the 2009 SSC title, and will play a single game Tuesday at 7:00, and a doubleheader on Wednesday at 6:00.
