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Box Score 2
ST. PETERSBURG â€" With hitting up and down the lineup, Florida Southern scored enough runs early on Saturday to provide a cushion even when Eckerd fought back late. That gave the Moccasins a 7-4 win in game one of the doubleheader, and in game two they turned it over to Chelsea Oglevie, who pitched her third shutout of the season to help the Mocs complete the sweep with a 4-0 win at the wind-swept Turley Athletic Complex.
In the opener, the Moccasins (9-11, 3-0 Sunshine State Conference) took a 5-0 lead with five runs in the top of the second inning, and later extended it to 6-0 before the Tritons came back to make a game of it. The Mocs got two hits and one RBI apiece from Gianni Artidiello and Dayna Hunn, and one hit and one RBI from both Jordan Alexander and Allasyn Lieneck. Christie Bailey also had a pair of hits in the opener, while Khaliah Brown reached with a hit and a walk, and scored two runs. It illustrated the type of balance the Mocs got from their lineup all the way from one through nine.
They also got five strong innings from sophomore pitcher Lauren Wolfe, who held the Tritons (10-13, 0-3) hitless through the first four. When Wolfe did run into trouble in the bottom of the sixth, freshman Kelliann Connors took over and pitched the final two innings to preserve the win.
Florida Southern got hits from five different players during the 5-run second inning, starting with Lieneck, whose 1-out single got the Mocs started. They eventually loaded the bases on singles by Bailey and Brown, and another single by Alexander scored Lieneck for a 1-0 lead. When second baseman Sabrina Lolo committed a throwing error on a ground ball hit by Artidiello, the Mocs scored two more runs, and an RBI single by Hunn made it 4-0. The fifth run scored on Eckerd’s second error of the inning.
The Moccasins tacked on another run in the top of the fifth when Heather Brinkmeier doubled and came home on a ground ball by Lieneck.
At that point in the game, the Mocs led 6-0 and Wolfe was working on a no-hitter. With Bailey turning a double play behind her, she got the first two outs in the bottom of the fifth but hit Kirby Parnell with a pitch before Chelsea Jeffares broke up the no-hit bid and the shutout with an RBI double to right. Kara Oberer followed with a single down the line and left, and the Tritons had cut the deficit down to 6-2.
A leadoff walk by Brown, sacrifice by Alexander, and single by Artidiello produced another Moccasin run in the top of the sixth, but the Tritons also scored again in the bottom half of the inning after loading the bases on a walk, hit batter and single by Kaitlyn Dougherty. That single prompted a pitching change by the Mocs, with Connors taking over for Wolfe. After a force out at the plate, Connors hit pinch-hitter Stephanie Wolfrom with a pitch to force in a run, but came back for two more outs to keep the score 7-3.
Eckerd started the bottom of the seventh with a single by Duncan and a double by Brittany Mitchell, and scored when the Mocs couldn’t handle the throw back to the infield. It didn’t rattle Connors though, who got three straight ground outs to end the game.
Wolfe improved to 3-3 with the win, giving up three runs on four hits, striking out three and walking five. Connors earned the Mocs’ first save of the season by giving up just one unearned run on two hits in two innings, with no strikeouts or no walks.
Whitney Bernier (6-8) was charged with the loss, giving up five runs (only one earned) on six hits in 1.2 innings. The combination of Logan Rohrbach and Brittany Mitchell held Florida Southern to two runs (one earned) in 5.1 innings.
Game two belonged to Oglevie, who gave up eight hits but pitched her third shutout of the season. The junior did not walk a batter, however, while working out of a jam in the fourth, getting a double play in the fifth, and leaving two more on base in the sixth. In pitching her 10th complete game in 10 starts this year, she upped her record to 6-5, and has now won six of her last seven decisions.
The Moccasins gave her a run to work with in the top of the first inning when Alexander led off with a walk, moved to second on a bunt by Artidiello, and came home when Brinkmeier’s single to left bounced past Kaycie Duncan for an error. They added another in the third when Brown reached on an error and scored on a double by Hunn that gave the Mocs a 2-0 lead.
After Oglevie had retired the first eight Eckerd hitters of the game, the Tritons got their first hit when Kirby Parnell reached on an infield single in the bottom of the third. They got two more in the fourth inning, but Oglevie fanned Kristen Schurr to leave runners at first and second. Then when Amanda Green and Kaitlyn Dougherty started the fifth inning with singles, Artidiello caught a line drive bunt by Parnell and turned it into a double play to help Oglevie’s cause.
The Mocs gave her a little more breathing room in the top of the sixth when they turned a single by Hunn and walk by Brinkmeier into runs, with the help of an error in between.
The Tritons stranded two more runners in the bottom of the sixth and one in the seventh before Oglevie finished the shutout.
Dougherty took the loss for Eckerd, falling to 2-3, despite giving up only one earned run on four hits in 5.1 innings. Rohrbach finished the game without allowing a hit in her 1.2 innings of work. Each Eckerd pitcher struck out two, and Dougherty also walked two.
Florida Southern, which was the only team in the SSC to sweep its series during the first weekend of conference play, will travel to Miami Shores next week for another 3-game series at Barry University. Game one is Friday night at 7:00, with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1:00.
