ST. PETERSBURG â€" There may not be an official stat for this sort of thing, but Christine Clark is sure of one thing: getting two hits in one inning, and doing it two games in a row is a very good thing. So is hitting home runs. For the second time in less than 24 hours, Clark had a single and a double to help power a second-inning explosion that sent Florida Southern to a 10-2 win in game one, and then added a home run and four RBI in game two that gave the Mocs a 7-3 win, and a sweep of Eckerd.
In the three game series, Clark went 7-for-9 with two doubles, a home run and six RBI. She was also the starting and winning pitcher in every game, making her the first Moccasin to ever win all three games of a Sunshine State Conference series. The SSC went to that scheduling format in 2004.
In the first game of the series on Friday night, the Moccasins scored eight runs in the top of the second inning en route to a 13-1 victory. Clark had a single that started that inning, and later drove in one of the runs with a double. She duplicated that feat on Saturday with a single that opened a 7-run second inning by the Mocs, and then doubled in a run later in the inning.
Though Florida Southern (13-8, 5-4) ended up winning by the 8-run rule, it was Eckerd (9-19, 0-6) that scored first, with Emma Docking reaching on a single to start the game, and coming in on a two-out hit by Alex Sasso. Florida Southern would score the next 10 runs, however, beginning with the big second inning where the Mocs scored all seven with two out.
Clark’s single started it, though she was erased on a fielder’s choice before Khaliah Brown walked and Steph Graziani was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Eckerd pitcher Whitney Bernier then hit Karlyn Scott as well, forcing in the tying run, and a walk to Erin Foley followed, giving Florida Southern a 2-1 lead. Brittany Martin singled sharply into leftfield to knock in Graziani, and Randi Grimes hit a 2-run single before Clark’s double knocked in Martin. The final run of the inning scored on an error.
Graziani picked up an RBI double and scored on a wild pitch in the top of the third to give Florida Southern two more runs, and later singled and scored on a base hit by Grimes in the fifth. That was the last of Florida Southern’s 11 hits in the game, with Grimes going 2-for-4 with three RBI, Clark going 3-for-3 with one RBI, and both Graziani and Foley going 2-for-3 with one RBI apiece.
Clark also pitched the first three innings of the shortened game for the win, giving up one run on three hits with no strikeouts and no walks. Liana Derringer pitched the final two innings, but three walks in the bottom of the fifth helped the Tritons score their second run. She gave up just one hit and struck out one.
The Moccasins started game two of the doubleheader with four runs in the top of the first inning. A home run by Clark provided three of them after Foley had driven in the first run with a ground out. The Mocs also got hits from Graziani and Scott in the inning and a walk from Martin just prior to Clark’s first home run of the season.
Eckerd got an RBI single from Sasso in the bottom of the first, though an error assisted the Tritons in scoring. The Mocs scored twice in the third, however, with Clark picking up her fourth RBI of the game. It came after Foley was hit by a pitch leading off the inning and moved to third on a double by Martin. Clark then lofted a pitch to center for a sac fly that plated Foley, and Grimes singled in Martin for a 6-1 Florida Southern lead.
The Tritons put together a mini-rally in the bottom of the fourth with two runs, an inning that started with a double by Chelsea Jeffares and a single by Sasso. Both runners were bunted into scoring position, and Kristen Schurr drove in the first one with a single into short right. A perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Emily Wiemken brought in the second run, and the Tritons had pulled within 6-3, with two runners still on base and only one out. Clark prevented further scoring, however, by striking out Sammy Sparks and Devlin Dougherty to end the inning.
Foley gave Clark (10-4) another run to work with, with an RBI single in the top of the seventh, and the junior lefty worked around two Eckerd hits in the bottom of the seventh to finish the game. The Tritons got 10 hits off Clark, but only two earned runs. She struck out seven and walked none.
Clark was one of three Moccasins in the second game of the doubleheader with two hits, joining Scott and Martin. She would have had a third, and gone 8-for-9 in the series, if not for a play made by Eckerd pitcher Kaitlyn Dougherty. With runners at first and second and none out in the top of the fifth, Clark hit a rocket up the middle that Dougherty somehow caught and turned into a line drive double play.
Florida Southern will be at home on Tuesday night when it hosts Warner in a doubleheader at Barnett Field beginning at 6:00 p.m.
