VALDOSTA â€" An eight-game road trip to Georgia did not start the way Florida Southern was hoping it would. Facing the #4-ranked team in the country, Florida Southern fell victim to a Holly Satterfield no-hitter in the opener, and home runs by catcher Alyssa Shirey in both games as Valdosta State won by scores of 10-0 and 6-0.
Satterfield improved to 5-0 with her second shutout of the season and allowed just one base runner, hitting Peggy Alex with a pitch with one out in the top of the first inning. The junior still needed some defensive help though to finish the no-hitter. Dezirae Parsons led off the top of the fifth with a line drive into left center that looked like it might get down for a hit, but Jackson raced over from her centerfield position and made a sliding catch for the out. Satterfield then got two ground outs to end the game and no-hit the Moccasins for only the fourth time in their 29-year history.
The Blazers (10-0) threatened right from the outset when Amber Shaw crossed up the Mocs with a two-strike bunt single, and Melessa Jackson hit a rolling ground ball through the left side for another hit. The situation got worse when Shaw and Jackson pulled off a double steal, but Moccasin pitcher Brittaney Alderman came back with three consecutive strikeouts to keep VSU off the board.
In the second inning though, Valdosta took the lead with three runs, all of them coming with two out. The Blazers’ #9 hitter, Clare Wamsley, knocked in the first one with a double down the leftfield line, turning the lineup over and back to Shaw. For the second inning in a row, Shaw beat out a bunt for an infield single, and quickly stole second. When the throw got away, Wamsley was able to score from third. Shaw later scored on a passed ball and the Blazers added two more base runners on walks before Heather Raulerson threw out Jackson attempting to steal.
Valdosta State doubled its lead in the third inning on a solo home run by Shirey, and a two-run shot by Amy Brightwell. When April Hutchens doubled in three more runs in the fourth, the Blazer lead reached double digits and sent Florida Southern to its first loss by the eight-run rule since a 10-0 loss at Rollins on April 8, 2001, a span of 466 games. The Moccasins had run-ruled an opponent 100 times during that same stretch.
Raulerson made sure that wouldn’t happen again in game two when she singled in the top of the first inning and had another base hit in the third. Yet in between, Valdosta State got a three-run homer from Shirey in the bottom of the first, and the Mocs were again in an early 3-0 hole.
As it turned out, those were the only runs Valdosta State scored against Christine Clark (2-4) until three Florida Southern errors opened the door for three more runs in the bottom of the sixth, all of them unearned. Otherwise, the sophomore lefthander stifled the Blazers for most of the game. After Shirey’s home run in the first, Clark allowed only two base runners until back-to-back one-out errors gave the Blazers their first two runners of the sixth.
While Valdosta State pitcher Margaret Carter shutout the Moccasins just as Satterfield did in game one, the Moccasins had seven hits against her, and out-hit the Blazers in the game. The Mocs had base runners in all but one inning, but left nine of them on base. Raulerson and Clark each had two hits, with Clark picking up a double in the fourth and a single in the sixth. Carter worked around all of that to earn her fifth win of the season and her third shutout. She’s allowed just two runs in 34.0 innings.
Florida Southern opens play in the Wolves Invitational in Carrollton, Georgia on Friday with a 12:00 p.m. game against Anderson (SC) and a 2:00 game against Columbus State.
