LAKELAND â€" In a pair of complete games Saturday, Christine Clark gave up a total of one run, but it was only enough to get Florida Southern one win. Megan Mayfield’s RBI single in the fourth inning gave Lynn University a 1-0 win in the first game of the doubleheader, before Peggy Alex had three hits and two RBI for Florida Southern in the second game to lead the Moccasins to a 6-0 win.
The Moccasins (17-14, 8-7) and Knights (7-29, 2-10) were even with six hits apiece in the opener, but three Florida Southern errors in the top of the fourth proved costly. Carisa Cook reached on one to start the inning, and Anne Marie Van Casteren reached on another one immediately thereafter. After Clark got the first out, the Moccasins committed another error that loaded the bases. Jordan Angel hit a fly ball to right after that, but it wasn’t deep enough to score the run, bringing Mayfield to the plate with two out.
After working the count full, the Knights’ #9 hitter in the lineup hit a flare into short left center that Karlyn Scott nearly caught while going to the ground. The ball squirted free, however, as Cook came into score. Scott was still able to get the final out of the inning though when she threw behind Van Casteren at third, catching the Lynn second baseman trying to get back to the bag.
Mayfield’s hit was one of six off Clark, with Katrina Lavadan picking up three of them. Florida Southern’s junior pitcher struck out five and walked no one, but lost for the second time this year without allowing an earned run.
Her counterpart in the circle, Callie Darlin, pitched the Knights’ first shutout of the season while also giving up six hits and walking only one batter. The Moccasins had base runners in all but one inning and stole a season-high five bases, but went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The last time came in the bottom of the seventh when Dani Blake singled with two out and stole second. Alex then hit a fly ball into short left that looked like it might fall in for a game-tying single, but Brittany Gross made a diving catch to end the game.
The Moccasins also lined into a double play with a runner at second in the in the bottom of the fifth, and had a runner nipped at the plate on a squeeze play in the bottom of the third.
Clark and Darlin were matched up again in game two of the doubleheader, but this time the Moccasins got 12 hits, including six in the bottom of the sixth inning when they blew the game open with four runs for a 6-0 win. Clark allowed just four hits in pitching her fourth shutout of the season, striking out just one batter along the way, but again walking no one. The win moved her record to 14-7, and she needed just 58 pitches to finish the game. The Knights never got a runner past first base.
The Moccasins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Alex beat out an infield single and came home on a double by Brittany Martin, and Alex made it 2-0 when she doubled in pinch-runner Brandy Pikus in the bottom of the fifth. Pikus had been running for Heather Raulerson, who singled sharply past third baseman Kasey Murray leading off the inning, and the Moccasin catcher was also a part of the four-run sixth.
Raulerson had one of five straight one-out singles for the Mocs, and drove in the second run of the inning after a Lynn error had already given them one run. Blake and Alex followed Raulerson with two more RBI singles to give Florida Southern its final 6-0 margin.
Before that, Darlin had limited Florida Southern to only four runs in the first 19 innings of the series after beating the Mocs 2-1 in 2010.
Florida Southern will step outside of conference in its next doubleheader, traveling to Frostproof on Wednesday for a 6:00 doubleheader against Webber International.
