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SAINT LEO â€" Gianni Artidiello may not come across as a power-hitting threat, but her home run against Columbus State was the difference in the game. The fact that it never left the park really didn’t matter to the Moccasins, who rode that first-inning homer, the right arm of pitcher Lauren Wolfe, and a bizarre game-ending double play to a 2-1 win over #25 Columbus State at the Saint Leo University Challenge.
Artidiello’s inside-the-park home run in the top of the first gave Florida Southern (3-9) both of its runs, and Wolfe did the rest. The sophomore from Lithia scattered five hits, all of them singles, in picking up her first win of the season. She struck out six, walked three and hit two batters, and when she got into trouble, worked out of it to give the Mocs their second win over a top-25 team this week.
When it came to the offense though, it was Artidiello who provided it. After Columbus State committed two errors on the opening play of the game to put Jordan Alexander at third base, Artidiello went the opposite way with a ball to left that dropped just inside the line. Leftfielder Branigan Wix tried to make a diving catch but came up short, and the ball bounced all the way to the fence. It went for Florida Southern’s first inside-the-park home run since Lindsey Powell hit a grand slam in that fashion against Rollins in 2010.
The Moccasins had hits over each of the next four innings too, and in three of them were able to get a runner all the way to third. One of those came after a Dayna Hunn double in the third, and in the fourth and fifth, Columbus State errors gave the Mocs a chance to score. Each time, however, CSU pitcher Taylor Turner left them stranded, and after a 2-out single by Leah Pemberton in the fifth, the Mocs were retired in order over the final two innings.
Turner, 3-2 in her freshman season, gave up five hits to the Moccasins while striking out three and walking two. Pemberton and Khaliah Brown were the most effective hitters against her, with each player picking up one hit and drawing one walk.
The Cougars made Wolfe work, but could score only a single run in the third inning. That came after they loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks sandwiched around a single by Kori Waugh. Casey Googe then blooped a single into short left, bringing in Wix to make it a 2-1 game. Wolfe kept it that way by getting Turner (who was also the Cougars’ cleanup batter) on a called third strike before Bree Nowlin flied out to left.
In the fifth inning, singles by Wix and Waugh, and a walk by Googe again loaded the bases, but Wolfe again got Turner and Nowlin to leave them loaded. The bottom of the seventh inning proved to be even more interesting as far as Florida Southern was concerned, while Columbus State was left wondering how the game could end the way it did.
Wix led off the seventh with her second hit of the game and Waugh followed her by getting hit by a pitch for the second time. Wolfe got an infield pop-up for the first out, bringing Googe to the plate. The Cougar shortstop hit a fly ball into shallow left that Brown appeared to have lined up for the catch. With the runners holding their ground, the ball ended up bouncing off Brown’s glove only to end up with shortstop Christie Bailey. Bailey flipped the ball over to Artidiello at third for one force-out, and with no hesitation, Artidiello fired it over to Pemberton at second to catch Waugh by half a step and complete the odd double play.
That gave Wolfe the win as she improved to 1-2 on the season. Of the 10 CSU base runners against her, seven came from the #9 and leadoff combination of Wix and Waugh. Wix had two hits and a walk, and Waugh had two hits and was hit twice.
