VALDOSTA â€" Call it an epic, an instant classic, or a pitcher’s duel for the ages, game one of the South Super Regional was all of the above. It was also another masterful performance by Florida Southern pitcher Christine Clark, even if it came in defeat. Though it took 16 innings, top-ranked Valdosta State finally pulled out a 2-1 win on a 1-out RBI double by Natalia Morozova, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
Friday night’s game was the longest postseason game in Florida Southern history, surpassing a 13-inning game in the 2005 regional tournament against West Florida. It was also the longest South Region Tournament game period since regional alignment began in 1994, and the longest Super Regional game anywhere in the country since Division II adopted that format in 2009. The previous Super Regional record had been set earlier in the day when Molloy (NY) beat Southern Connecticut State in 15 innings.
The match-up featured two of the top pitchers in Division II, with Clark owning a 29-9 record, and a 0.86 ERA that ranked third in the country, and Valdosta State’s Alanna Hadley starting the night 27-3 with a 0.97 ERA that ranked fifth. The two seniors gave a large and raucous crowd exactly what they expected. Through the first seven innings they each allowed only one run on three hits, and each team had base runners in only three innings. By the time the game reached the 14th inning, the hit totals had only moved to five apiece, and the teams combined for only 15 in the game.
Ultimately, the Blazers (52-4) prevailed when Marti Littlefield and Morozova hit back-to-back doubles with one out in the bottom of the 16th. Littlefield’s hit, her only one in seven at-bats, was fair by only inches as it bounced just inside the first base bag and into the rightfield corner. Morozova followed with a line drive into the left centerfield gap to score the winning run, and end the longest game in Valdosta State history.
Despite the loss, Clark was fantastic from start to finish. She held a VSU team hitting .346 to only nine hits and two runs in 15.1 innings. Clark struck out 15 and had no walks, her eighth double-digit strikeout game of the season, and one shy of the school’s postseason record set by Megan Brown in 2005 against West Florida.
The first run of the game was scored by Florida Southern (39-17), as Brittany Martin hit a towering home run over the left field fence leading off the top of the second inning. It was the ninth home run of the season for Martin, and it allowed the senior third baseman to tie the school’s career home run record of 16 in only two seasons. She now shares that record with Wanda Graham (1990-93) and Angela Williams (2006-09).
Though Clark did not allow a hit until the fifth inning, she still had to work out of trouble in the bottom of the third. Clark hit #7 hitter Angela O’Connor leading off the inning, and when Clare Wamsley put down a bunt, Clark’s throw to first pulled Steph Graziani off the bag. It was the first error of the season for the top fielding pitcher in the Sunshine State Conference. Clark shook it off though, and retired the next three VSU batters without incident.
Two innings later, however, the Blazers broke through with their first run of the game. Ashley Steinhilber gave VSU its first hit of the game with a leadoff single in the fifth, and O’Connor bunted her into scoring position. Wamsley got the job done for the Blazers with a single through the right side of the infield, and despite a strong throw from Dayna Hunn, Steinhilber was able to slide in under the tag at the plate.
Valdosta State threatened again in the bottom of the seventh when its first two hitters reached safely on a bunt single and a fielder’s choice sacrifice bunt. Just as she did in the third inning though, Clark got three straight outs and left two Blazers on base to send the game to extra innings.
The Mocs got a hit from Graziani in the ninth and picked up another base runner in the tenth on a Valdosta error, but left both of them at second. Graziani’s single with one out in the ninth snapped a string of 12 straight outs recorded by Hadley.
The Blazers had runners in the eighth and ninth innings before Clark set down 10 in a row. That streak ended when April Hutchens doubled down the leftfield line leading off the bottom of the 13th inning, but she got no further as the Blazers couldn’t get a bunt down and Clark ended the inning by striking out the #3 hitter Samantha Posey.
The Moccasins then put together a major threat in the top of the 14th when Randi Grimes walked with one out and Martin reached on an error. This time it was Hadley’s turn to skirt trouble, leaving a pair of runners on base for the Mocs. One inning later, they threatened again with a leadoff single by Devin Mathews, the only Moccasin with more than one hit, but she was erased at second on a bunt play, and the Blazers turned their second double play of the night after that to keep FSC from scoring.
Hadley set them down in order in the top of the 16th, and finished the night having allowed only six hits with six strikeouts and no walks.
Game two of the series will be Saturday afternoon at 1:00.
