LAKELAND â€" After pounding out 17 hits en route to a 9-1 win in game one, and jumping out to a 4-0 lead in game two, it looked like Florida Southern was well on its way to a sweep of St. Xavier (IL) Tuesday night at Barnett Field. The Cougars came back, however, with seven runs in the final three innings to earn a split, and a 7-5 win of their own in game two.
The Moccasins (3-6) had two or more hits from seven different players in the opener, including three apiece from Erin Foley and Dani Blake. Foley then picked up two more hits in game two, and Steph Graziani had a pair of hits in both games. Overall, the Mocs had 26 hits in the doubleheader.
In game one, Heather Raulerson set the pace for Florida Southern with an RBI triple in the second inning that gave them a 1-0 lead. She also drove in the Mocs’ second run with a double in the fourth inning, which followed a 2-out double by Dezirae Parsons. Raulerson wasn’t finished though, scoring run number three as part of a double steal with Blake. When the Cougars tried to throw out Raulerson at the plate, Blake was able to take third, and then scored on a base hit by Graziani to put the Mocs up 4-0.
Florida Southern tacked on two more runs in the fifth after loading the bases with one out on singles by Brittany Martin and Christine Clark, and a walk to Randi Grimes. The Cougars (4-2) got a force out at the plate for out number two, but when Raulerson’s ground ball to third couldn’t be handled, the Mocs scored on the error, and an RBI single by Blake made it 6-1.
Six hits in the bottom of the sixth inning allowed Florida Southern to end the game early by virtue of the 8-run rule, with Foley starting it, and Blake ending it. Foley’s single was the first of five straight hits by the Moccasins, which included RBI singles by Clark and Khaliah Brown. Blake would then beat out an infield hit as Brown scored the final run.
St. Xavier managed just three hits off Clark, who went the distance to improve to 3-3 on the season. The Cougars used two errors in the top of the fifth to score their only run, with Megan Paradzinski driving it in with an infield single. Clark struck out two and walked no one.
In game two, the Mocs were retired in order in the first two innings before breaking out with four runs on six hits in the bottom of the third. Christie Bailey got them started with a leadoff single, Raulerson followed with another hit, and Blake bunted both of them into scoring position. What followed were four straight hits by the top of the lineup, with Graziani lacing a single into left center to score Bailey with the first run of the game. After Graziani took an extra base on the throw back to the infield, Peggy Alex delivered a two-run single to make it 3-0, but was thrown out trying to reach second. The Mocs still scored another run though, when Foley singled up the middle, stole second, and came home on a 2-out single by Martin.
Leading 4-0, the Mocs loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth but were unable to score, and the game turned in a different direction after that. Morgan Brown had limited the Cougars to just one hit through the first four innings, but started the top of the fifth by hitting Amie Brown and giving up a base hit to Melanie Kachinsky. Two batters later, Katie Houlihan tripled over the head of Blake in center, scoring two runs, and cutting the FSC lead in half.
That also brought Liana Derringer into the game, but after getting the first batter she faced on a fly ball to center, she gave up an RBI double to Ashley Hunter and walked three straight batters to force in the tying run.
St. Xavier kept going in the top of the sixth by putting five straight batters on base and getting three of them home. Derringer left after the first two, but Courtney Murphy greeted Clark, the Mocs’ third pitcher of the game, with a double to center that drove in two runs and put the Cougars up 6-4. Murphy would later score on a double by Ariel Hinton before the Mocs got out of the inning with a 6-3-2 double play.
Florida Southern wasn’t finished scoring either, with singles by Grimes and Graziani, sandwiched around a walk to Bailey, producing a run in the bottom of the sixth. They nearly scored again in the seventh inning after Foley led off with a walk and took second on an error. St. Xavier pitcher Megan Nonnemacher got a big strikeout for the first out of the inning though, and then snared a liner hit by Clark that appeared to be headed up the middle for a hit. Instead, it turned into out #2. A walk to Brown gave the Mocs another base runner before Nonnemacher ended the game with a ground out.
Nonnemacher upped her record to 3-0 with the win, though Florida Southern reached the freshman for nine hits and five walks. Derringer suffered the defeat for Florida Southern.
Florida Southern will be on the road this weekend for six games at the Wolves Invitational, hosted by the University of West Georgia. The Mocs will play two games each day, beginning Friday at noon against Augusta State, and at 2:00 against Georgia Southwestern.
