Box Score
WINTER PARK â€" Florida Southern jumped on Rollins College early Tuesday night in a battle between the last two champions of the Sunshine State Conference, but a couple of early blasts by Hope Bitzer and Krista Rodden sparked a comeback by the Tars and lifted them to a 9-5 win in the SSC opener for both teams.
Through three innings, both teams had five hits, but the 14th-ranked Tars (5-1, 1-0) had out-scored the Moccasins 6-3 on the strength of home runs by Bitzer and Rodden. Bitzer’s was a 3-run shot in the bottom of the first that gave Rollins a 4-2 lead, and Rodden’s was good for two runs in the bottom of the third. Rodden also had an RBI single in front of Bitzer’s first-inning home run, driving in the Tars’ first run of the game, and giving both players three RBI in the early stages of the game.
Before the Tars even had a chance to bat though, Florida Southern (2-3, 0-1) had scored two runs in the top of the first inning. Graziani got them going with a leadoff single into short left and stole second with one out. After Erin Foley walked, Christine Clark put the Mocs ahead with a two-out RBI single, and when the Tars threw the ball away on the same play, Foley was able to score all the way from first.
The bottom of the first saw Rollins score four runs on three hits, with an error mixed in, highlighted by Bitzer’s 3-run blast over the right centerfield fence. The Moccasins got one of those back though in the top of the third when Dani Blake singled and scored on a base hit by Peggy Alex. That cut the gap to 4-3, but Rodden’s 2-run homer in the bottom of the inning gave the Tars breathing room once again.
Rollins added to its lead in the fifth inning when Rodden picked up her fourth RBI of the game with a double to the fence in right center, and Jessica Moreland added a sacrifice fly that made the score 8-3.
The Moccasins came right back in the top of the sixth with two runs of their own, an inning that started with another walk by Foley, and was helped by a Rollins error. Randi Grimes did the damage for Florida Southern, driving a pitch to deep left for a two-run, pinch-hit double that brought the Mocs within 8-5. However, Rollins tacked on another run in the bottom of the inning to close out the scoring.
Kirsten Frame, the 2010 SSC Pitcher-of-the-Year survived a somewhat rocky outing for her second win of the season, improving to 2-1, while Clark took the loss for Florida Southern, falling to 2-2.
The Mocs got seven hits off Frame, two of them by Graziani, who also took two hits away with her glove. The junior leftfielder made a pair of spectacular diving catches to rob Monica Meadows in the second, and Amber Pederson in the third. Blake pulled off a similar feat in the third inning to deny Moreland.
Florida Southern and Rollins will complete their 3-game series with a doubleheader Wednesday night in Winter Park beginning at 6:00 p.m.
