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LAKELAND â€" Meagan Burke struck again for Tampa Saturday afternoon in a 2-0 game one victory, and there was more from pitchers Julia Morrow and Kayla Cox too. For the Moccasins’ part, their own pitching from Brandi Jones and Chelsea Oglevie kept them in both games, and a late RBI single from Christie Bailey had the second one all tied up, but the Spartans erupted for seven runs in the top of the seventh to finish off the day with a 8-1 win.
Burke, who drove in the only run of the game in the series opener on Friday, went 3-for-3 with a solo home run in the fifth inning of the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. She also walked in the first inning, which set up an RBI single by Bre Setree. Morrow kept Florida Southern (18-11, 4-5 Sunshine State Conference) off the scoreboard by limiting the Mocs to only one hit, a double by junior Priscilla Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) in the fifth inning.
Tampa (22-4, 12-3) had nine hits off Florida Southern freshman Brandi Jones (Snellville, Ga.), and Burke’s fourth home run of the season was a rope over the leftfield fence, but many of the others were infield singles or balls hit softly into the outfield. One of those was a bloop single by Setree in the first inning that scored Kandi Kuder from second base. Kuder had reached on a 1-out single and moved to second when Burke walked. Setree then looped a ball into short right where it was nearly caught by second baseman Leah Pemberton (Valrico, Fla.) who was racing toward the foul line along with right fielder Heather Brinkmeier (Port St. Joe, Fla.).
Morrow limited the Moccasins to only three base runners in the game and did not allow any until the double by Gonzalez leading off the bottom of the fifth. Junior Kim Booker (Bartow, Fla.) bunted her to third, but she was stranded there after a ground out and strikeout.
With 1-out walks to junior Jessica Lanci (Orlando, Fla.) and Gonzalez in the seventh inning, the Moccasins had a chance to either tie the game or take the lead, and came very close to doing so. Booker drove a pitch on a line to deep left, but Jenna Halper got back on it and made the catch. A force play at second then ended the game, with Morrow getting her fourth shutout of the season. The redshirt junior struck out 12 batters in the game while improving to 11-1.
Jones fell to 9-4, giving up only two runs on nine hits, while striking out three and walking one.
Morrow would also get the win in game two after coming in as a relief pitcher for Cox with the game tied in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cox and Oglevie had locked horns for the second time in the series, and for the second time an early unearned run had given the Spartans a 1-0 lead. They took that into the sixth when the Moccasins came back to tie the game.
Gonzalez led things off for Florida Southern in the sixth with essentially an infield double. The ball fell in down the line behind the third base bag out of anyone’s reach and bounced into foul territory, allowing Gonzalez to reach second. Booker moved her to third with a bunt, and this time the Mocs got her in when Bailey (Jacksonville, Fla.) came in as a pinch-hitter and drilled the first pitch she saw up the middle for a game-tying hit.
When senior Allasyn Lieneck (Oldsmar, Fla.) put down another sacrifice bunt, Burke couldn’t handle the throw at first, putting runners at the corners with one out. That’s when Morrow entered the game for Tampa, and after Lieneck stole second, Morrow got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
With the game tied 1-1, Tampa had been held to five hits by Oglevie up to that point, all of them singles, with one by Kayleen Boatwright driving in the Spartans’ run in the second inning. However, the Spartans got seven hits in the seventh inning, which started with back-to-back singles by Kuder and Burke. After a bunt by Setree, Lindsay Dring tripled down the right field line to give UT a 3-1 lead. Alyssa Colletti added another run with an RBI single, a double by pinch-hitter Megin Eskew drove in two more, a double by Boatwright plated one, and Kuder ended the scoring with another RBI single.
Though Oglevie was charged with seven runs on 10 hits in 6.2 innings, only three of those runs were earned, as the senior from Tampa struck out five and walked one while falling to 8-6.
Dring and Colletti each had three of Tampa’s 12 hits in the game, and sophomore Jordan Alexander (Valrico, Fla.) had two of Florida Southern’s six.
The Mocs were able to put the leadoff runner on against Cox four times, but could score only once. They also got a double from Pemberton in the fifth inning and were denied a run when Halper went to her knees in short left to take a 2-out hit away from Lanci.
Florida Southern will be on the road next weekend for another 3-game Sunshine State Conference series, this one at Florida Tech with a single game on Friday at 3 p.m., and a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m.
