BOCA RATON â€" Behind the shutout pitching of Christine Clark, and a pair of high-impact plays by Marty Wilcox, Florida Southern was able to pull away for a 5-0 win over Lynn in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader. In game two, Clark was at it again while the Moccasins took advantage of walks, wild pitches and two Lynn errors to complete the sweep with a 5-1 victory.
The Moccasins (26-7, 7-5 Sunshine State Conference) scored their first run of game one in the top of the second when Devin Mathews doubled leading off the inning and came home on a base hit by Christie Bailey. The Knights were able to keep it a 1-0 game until the sixth when the Mocs scored four times to put it out of reach.
In between, the Knights (1-31, 0-9) nearly tied the game in the bottom of the fourth but were denied by Wilcox. After Bianca Savulak tripled to lead off the inning, Lauren Garceau hit a fly ball to medium depth in right center that Wilcox drifted under to make the catch. Savulak tagged on the play and attempted to score the tying run, but Wilcox threw a strike to the plate for a double play that kept the score 1-0.
In her next at-bat, in the top of the sixth, Wilcox added to the lead she had already helped protect. With runners at first and second after base hits by Randi Grimes and Mathews, Wilcox delivered a 2-out single that drove in the second run of the game, and extended the inning. Another single by Bailey loaded the bases for Sam Gale, who drew a walk that made the score 3-0. Karlyn Scott then drove in two more runs with a single to center.
The Moccasins might have done even more scoring, but three impressive defensive plays by the Knights kept the game close for a long time. Two of them came in the top of the third inning when the Mocs had two hits but were unable to score. Scott led off the inning with a bunt single and stole second, but was doubled off the bag when pitcher Missy Montgomery caught a line drive hit up the middle by Steph Graziani. Grimes followed that with another single, and Brittany Martin crushed a pitch to deep center. Savulak, however, caught it on the run while crashing into the fence to keep FSC from scoring another run.
Martin was robbed again in the sixth inning, this time by Garceau at short. The diving catch on a ball hit up the middle came with Grimes at first, and may have been an even more difficult play than the one made by Savulak, but it was only a temporary reprieve. Helped by Wilcox and Scott, the Mocs went on to score four runs in the inning.
With a little more margin for error, Clark went on to finish her eighth complete game shutout of the season, giving up just three hits, striking out six and walking none.
The Moccasins had 10 hits off Montgomery, including two apiece from Scott, Grimes, Mathews and Bailey. Montgomery struck out four and walked two.
Florida Southern turned to Clark again in game two, and though she didn’t get a shutout, the senior lefty still picked up her 19th win of the season against only four losses. She gave up six hits, walked two and struck out four, but the Knights still needed a Florida Southern error to score their only run against her.
Although Florida Southern scored five runs off Kasey Murray, the Moccasins had just three hits, and took a 4-1 lead into the seventh inning with only one hit up to that point. Murray’s wildness cost her though, as she issued four walks, hit a batter and threw four wild pitches. The Knights also committed two errors that led to two 5th-inning runs, and a passed ball helped the Mocs score their final run in the seventh.
None of Florida Southern’s three hits came from Scott, who saw her 18-game hitting streak come to an end one game short of the school record. Even so, Scott factored into three of the runs Florida Southern scored. She helped the Mocs take a 1-0 lead in the first inning when she walked to start the game and eventually came home on a ground out by Martin.
In the fifth inning, with the Mocs holding a 2-1 lead, Gale was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Scott reached on a throwing error to put runners at the corners. She then stole second, and both runners came in when a ball hit by Graziani was thrown away for an error. Two innings later, after a single and a passed ball gave the Mocs a runner at second, Scott bunted Gale over to third, and Graziani brought her in with a sacrifice fly.
Florida Southern will be on the road again Wednesday when it travels to Frostproof to take on Webber International in a doubleheader beginning at 6:00 p.m.
