CLEARWATER â€" Christine Clark may not have been at her best on Saturday, but less than 24 hours after a rough outing against Flagler, Florida Southern’s senior ace showed why she’s still one of the best pitchers in the Sunshine State Conference â€" or maybe one of the best players. Clark not only pitched her first shutout of the season, she also had two hits in a pair of big innings that gave the Moccasins an 8-0 win over Colorado Christian.
Playing their final game of the Eckerd College Tournament, the Moccasins (3-2) needed only six innings to beat the Cougars (2-3), a first-year program playing the first games in team history on a seven-game road trip to Florida. Clark held them to five hits, struck out six and walked no one in pitching the Mocs’ first shutout of 2012. Three of those five hits made it into scoring position, but each time Clark left them on base, including the sixth inning when Colorado Christian had two of its three hits. She got the final out of that inning by deflecting a ground ball up the middle to third baseman Brittany Martin, who fired it over to first to keep the Cougars from scoring.
Clark also played a big role with her bat, sparking a 3-run second inning with a leadoff double, and picking up a two-out single in the fifth that led to four more runs. She went 8-for-14 in the Moccasins’ five games in the tournament.
After Clark’s double in the second, the Mocs got a single from Dayna Hunn and a sacrifice fly from Christie Bailey for their first run of the game. They added another run on an error, and Khaliah Brown scored the third run when Steph Graziani was caught in a run-down play between first and second.
The score remained 3-0 until the bottom of the fifth when Karlyn Scott was hit by a pitch and Martin walked. The Cougars then let a foul ball hit by Clark drop due to miscommunication, and they paid for it dearly. Clark ended up beating out an infield single that loaded the bases with two out, and when Devin Mathews reached on an error by Colorado Christian’s first baseman, both Scott and Martin were able to score. Hunn then drove in two more runs with a double, and the Mocs were up 7-0.
They ended the game one inning later. Marty Wilcox swung at the first pitch she saw as a college softball player and blasted it to deep left center for a double, and after taking third on a ground out by Scott, she scored on Cassie Haynes’ single through the left side of the infield.
Mariah Bledsoe took the loss for Colorado Christian, but gave up just two earned runs in pitching a complete game. She struck out four, walked two and allowed eight hits.
Hannah Rapoport and Shelbi Long each had two hits for the Cougars, who will remain in Florida for a doubleheader against Palm Beach Atlantic.
Florida Southern will be at home for the first time in 2012 on Wednesday night, hosting Webber International in a doubleheader at 6:00 p.m.
