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Box Score 2
LAKELAND â€" Situated in the ninth spot in the batting order may not be glamorous, but for Barry’s Alexis Kent on Sunday, she was in the right place at the right time more than once. The sophomore catcher broke game one open with a 2-run single in the top of the sixth inning, and had a pair of sacrifice flies in game two, while the 9th-ranked Buccaneers got two wins and 11.1 scoreless innings from Taylor Sabol to sweep a doubleheader from Florida Southern, 4-0 and 3-1.
Sabol tossed a 3-hit shutout in the opener without walking a batter or striking anyone out. That allowed her to finish the game with just 66 pitches in her first career shutout. The sophomore was making only her sixth career start. When game two starter Britney Pugh ran into trouble in the third inning, Sabol came on in relief, and gave up just one hit over the final 4.1 innings, again without a walk or a strikeout. The two wins improved her record to 4-3.
On the other side, the Moccasins got good work again from their starting pitchers, freshman Brandi Jones (Snellville, Ga.) and senior Chelsea Oglevie (Tampa, Fla.). They also got hits in each game from junior first baseman Priscilla Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) and junior outfielder Kylee Stearns (Lakeland, Fla.).
Jones had a shutout going in the first game until Kayla Ogle singled and stole second with two out in the top of the fifth and came home on a base hit by Megan Copeland. Prior to that, the only hit against Jones had been an infield single by Ogle leading off the game. In between, she worked around three errors and a hit batter to keep the Buccaneers (12-4, 2-1 Sunshine State Conference) off the scoreboard.
The Bucs got two more off Jones in the top of the sixth, which started with an infield single by Julie Brito, a hard-hit ball that deflected off the glove of Jones. The Mocs tried to throw pinch-runner Christal Cruz out at second when Pugh put down a sacrifice but the throw was late, putting runners at first and second. Both of them later came home when Kent singled down the right field line with two out.
Jones exited after the sixth inning, having allowed three runs on six hits with 10 strikeouts and one walk. Freshman Hannah Loyer (Bradenton, Fla.) pitched the seventh inning, picking up three strikeouts, though Barry used a pair of singles and a squeeze bunt by Pugh to score another run.
Florida Southern’s three hits in the game came from sophomore Jordan Alexander (Valrico, Fla.) and Stearns in the third inning, and Gonzalez in the seventh. Ogle robbed the Mocs of another hit in the seventh when junior Kim Booker (Bartow, Fla.) lined one to deep left center, but the Bucs’ centerfielder tracked it down and made the catch while going to the ground.
The Moccasins (12-4, 2-1) equaled their game-one hit total by the third inning of game two, but Sabol shut them down after that by retiring 12 of the 14 batters she faced. One of those who reached against her did so on a fielding error, and she was erased on a double play, one of two the Buccaneers turned in the game.
The Buccaneers were limited to six hits by Oglevie, but the Moccasins made four errors behind her, with one of them providing Barry a run in the first, and another leading to a run in the fourth. The first run scored directly on a 2-out error after Oglevie nearly worked around singles by Copeland and Hunter Mars. Their other two runs were both driven in by Kent with sacrifice flies, both of which scored Ashley Fernandez who led off the second and fourth innings with doubles.
After the second Fernandez double, Oglevie did not allow another hit the rest of the game, a stretch of 15 Barry batters. She finished with two strikeouts and no walks. It was Oglevie’s third straight complete game, a 21-innning stretch that’s seen her give up a total of three earned runs, though she fell to 2-3 after Sunday’s effort.
Florida Southern scored its only run in the bottom of the third, an inning that started with a leadoff double by Loyer in her first career at-bat. Stearns added a one-out single, and the Mocs loaded the bases when Alexander hit a ground ball to short where Fernandez tried unsuccessfully to get an out at third. That loaded the bases for Christie Bailey (Jacksonville, Fla.), who ripped a pitch down the line at first, but Brito stopped it and forced Loyer on a close play at the plate.
Brito’s play saved potentially two runs from scoring, but the Moccasins did get one when sophomore Leah Pemberton (Valrico, Fla.) walked to force in Stearns. Pugh was lifted in favor of Sabol at that point, and got Gonzalez, the SSC’s leading hitter to hit into a force play at third for the final out of the inning. The Mocs got only one more runner into scoring position the rest of the game, but stranded Bailey at second after her leadoff single in the sixth.
Florida Southern will play again on Tuesday at 5 p.m. when it hosts Warner University in a doubleheader re-scheduled from an earlier rainout.
