Box Score
MELBOURNE â€" Allasyn Lieneck’s big play on defense and big hit on offense ensured Florida Southern would live to play another day. Jessica Lanci’s hit in extra innings ensured the Moccasins would win. Lanci’s RBI single in the top of the 10th inning lifted the Mocs to a 2-1 win over Florida Tech in a game suspended from Saturday, and Kim Booker drove in the go-ahead run in the 14th inning of game two to give them a 4-2 win the nightcap.
Florida Southern (21-11, 7-5) and Florida Tech (22-17, 7-8) were able to play six innings of their scheduled doubleheader on Saturday before weather forced a suspension with game one tied 1-1. Had either team been leading at that point, it would have been considered an official game by conference rules, but with the score tied, the NCAA’s halted game rule applied, allowing the teams to finish the game on Sunday. The reason it got there at all was Lieneck, the Mocs’ senior centerfielder from Oldsmar, who threw a runner out at the plate on Saturday and later drove in the tying run.
The Panthers scored in the bottom of the fourth with back-to-back 2-out hits by Nicole Miller and Jessica Callahan. Miller’s was a double, and Callahan followed with a hard-hit single into right. Miller had stopped at third but came home when the throw to the plate bounced to the backstop. Ashley Montion had the Panthers’ third straight hit with a single up the middle, and the Panthers tried to score again but were thwarted by Lieneck, who threw out Callahan.
The Moccasins had been held to two base runners through the first four innings by Taylor Smith, both of them singles by senior Christie Bailey (Jacksonville, Fla.). In the top of the fifth though, sophomore Leah Pemberton (Valrico, Fla.) led off with an infield single and took second on a ground out. After moving to third on a wild pitch, Pemberton scored when Lieneck singled into left. Sophomore Jordan Alexander (Valrico, Fla.) gave the Mocs another hit, but Smith kept the game tied when she induced Bailey to pop up to short.
Florida Tech stranded a runner at second in the bottom of the fifth and both teams went down 1-2-3 in the sixth before play was stopped. Heading into the suspension, Florida Southern had five hits off Smith, and Florida Tech had five off freshman Brandi Jones (Snellville, Ga.).
When play resumed Sunday, the Moccasins had hits from senior Heather Brinkmeier (Port St. Joe, Fla.) in the seventh and Bailey in the eighth, but left both runners on base. In the ninth, the Mocs got hits from Brinkmeier and Lieneck, and had runners at first and third with two out, but Florida Tech catcher Nicole Shinsky picked Brinkmeier off third to end the threat.
In the top of the tenth, junior Kylee Stearns (Lakeland, Fla.) led things off with a line drive single to center on an 0-2 pitch and was bunted to second by Alexander, who also reached when the ball was dropped at first base. Bailey put down another bunt to move both runners along, and Lanci singled sharply between third and short to drive in Stearns.
Jones got three pop-ups in the bottom of the tenth to end the game, giving Florida Southern the win. Jones allowed just six hits in 10.0 innings, struck out four and walked two. She’s now 10-4 on the season.
Smith fell to 7-8 with the loss, giving up 11 hits in 10.0 innings while striking out five and issuing no walks. Three of the hits off Smith came from Bailey, with Lieneck and Brinkmeier each picking up two.
In game two, even with hits by both teams in each of the first three innings, neither could score until Florida Tech third baseman Taylor Peterson homered leading off the bottom of the fourth. The Mocs came right back though with two runs in the top of the fifth, an inning that started with back-to-back bunt singles by Lieneck and Stearns. Another single by Bailey loaded the bases for Lanci, who doubled to left center to put the Mocs ahead 2-1.
The Panthers tied the score 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth. Nicole Shinsky led off that inning with a flare that dropped in behind the pitcher’s circle for an infield single. She was replaced by pinch-runner Ember Wells, who moved to second on an error, and scored when Montion singled down the leftfield line with two out.
When the game went to extra innings Florida Southern had a chance to score first when it loaded the bases in the top of the eighth on infield singles by Pemberton, Lieneck and Stearns. However, Florida Tech escaped without giving up a run when Peterson grabbed a chopper hit by Alexander down the line at third, put the tag on one runner, and flipped the ball to shortstop Brigit Godfrey covering the bag behind her for the force out on another.
While Florida Tech turned one double play in extra innings, Florida Southern turned two of them, including their own 5-to-6 double play in the bottom of the ninth. That one started when Alexander caught a low line drive bunt by Godfrey with one out and runners at second and third, and Lanci took the throw at the third base bag to double off Brown. Then in the bottom of the 10th, the Mocs turned a more conventional 6-4-3 double play to get out of that inning.
After going 3-up, 3-down from the 11th through the 13th innings, Florida Southern got a base runner to start the 14th when Alexander reached on an error. The Moccasins then got consecutive singles from Bailey (her fourth hit of the game) and Lanci to load the bases with none out. The Panthers briefly held serve when junior Priscilla Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) bounced into a force out at the plate, but Booker gave the Mocs a 3-2 lead with a ground ball to third. Peterson looked to the plate but had no chance to get Bailey before throwing to first base for the second out. Lanci gave the Mocs an insurance run when she scored on the Panthers’ second error of the inning.
That made a winner of freshman Hannah Loyer (Bradenton, Fla.), who pitched the final 3.2 innings in relief of senior Chelsea Oglevie (Tampa, Fla.). Loyer gave up two hits and three walks, but worked around all of them with three strikeouts, four putouts by Lieneck in center, and an outfield assist from Brinkmeier in right, who threw a runner out at third. Loyer is now 2-1.
Oglevie went the first 10.1 innings, and allowed just one earned run (two total runs) on 10 hits. She had a career-high 10 strikeouts and walked four. Of the 10 hits she allowed, five were infield singles.
Bailey had a career-high four hits for the Moccasins, who had 15 as a team against Rachel Pence and Taylor Smith. Pence went the first five innings before Smith (7-9) pitched the final nine without giving up an earned run. Pence struck out eight and walked one, and Smith had three strikeouts with one walk.
The 14-inning game was far from the longest in school history, with a handful of games going 15 or longer, but it did equal the longest game the Mocs have ever won. They won a game at Saint Leo 1-0 in 1992, and defeated Barry at home by the same score in 2001.
Florida Southern will play again next weekend, April 4-5, in a 3-game Sunshine State Conference series at Nova Southeastern, with a single game on Friday at 6 p.m., and a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m.
