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Box Score 2 MIAMI SHORES – It may not have been 35 innings of softball like their infamous 2001 doubleheader was, but four rain delays and 7½ hours later, Barry had two one-run extra-inning wins over Florida Southern. In game one, Hunter Mars had an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th to give the Buccaneers a come-from-behind 6-5 win, and in game two, Kristina Pazienza hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to give them another comeback win, this one 3-2.
Florida Southern had 22 hits in the doubleheader and Barry had 21, with the Moccasins getting five from senior Kylee Stearns (Lakeland, Fla.) and three apiece from senior Kim Booker (Bartow, Fla.) and juniors Jordan Alexander (Valrico, Fla.) and Leah Pemberton (Valrico, Fla.).
Just as they did in the first game of the series Friday night, the Moccasins (11-14, 0-6 Sunshine State Conference) struck for two runs in the top of the first inning. Senior Gianni Artidiello (Miami, Fla.) led off the game with an infield single and Alexander followed with a walk. Two batters later, after a sacrifice bunt by Pemberton, junior Maggie Roberts (Lakeland, Fla.) singled sharply into center, giving the Mocs a 2-0 lead.
Barry (18-5, 6-0) turned a leadoff walk and stolen base by Cheyanne Head in the bottom of the second into its first run when Megan Copeland drove her in with a single. The Bucs then claimed the lead when Dee Espinosa and Julie Brito started the bottom of the third with singles and scored as part of a 3-run homer by Ashley Fernandez.
Now trailing 4-2, the Moccasins mounted a comeback with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth. That inning started with a base hit by senior Priscilla Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.), and the Mocs got another base runner when Roberts reached on an error. Barry pitcher Taylor Sabol got the next two batters, but hit Booker. Stearns then cleared the bases by lacing a triple down the line in right, giving the Mocs a 5-4 advantage.
Florida Southern held that lead for the next three innings as sophomore pitcher Hannah Loyer (Bradenton, Fla.) retired nine of the next 10 batters she faced. The Mocs turned things over to sophomore Brandi Jones (Snellville, Ga.) in the seventh, but the Buccaneers were able to scratch out an unearned run against her to send the game to extra innings. It was Fernandez with the RBI again, as the Barry shortstop singled down the line in left to plate Espinosa, who had reached earlier on a leadoff single.
The Moccasins had to deal with the frustration of leaving 13 runners on base, including 11 over the last seven innings. The Mocs got leadoff singles from Alexander in the fifth, Booker in the sixth, Pemberton in the seventh, freshman Ashlyn Worcester (Bloomingdale, Ill.) in the eighth, Pemberton again in the ninth, and Alexander again in the 11th, but stranded all of them. In the top of the 11th, they also got a walk from Pemberton to put their first two batters on base, but left them at second and third.
Barry left 14 on base, but won the game in the bottom of the 11th after getting three straight 2-out singles. Fernandez had the first of those, giving her three hits in the game, and Mars brought her home with a single to center.
Haley Wiseman got the win for Barry by pitching 3.0 innings of scoreless relief, working around three hits and a walk to improve to 10-2. The Moccasins had scored five runs (two earned) on nine hits and three walks in Sabol's 8.0 innings. Sabol also struck out five.
Jones dropped to 7-6 with the loss, giving up two runs (one earned) on nine hits with four strikeouts and one walk in 4.2 innings. Loyer gave up four runs on five hits with six strikeouts and five walks in 6.0 innings before Jones relieved her.
Alexander, Pemberton, and Stearns all had two of Florida Southern's 12 hits in the opener.
In game two, Barry took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning without a hit, getting a leadoff walk from Copeland, who was bunted to second and took third on a wild pitch. A fly ball to center by Espinosa was deep enough to bring her home.
The Moccasins threatened in the top of the second with singles by senior Jessica Lanci (Orlando, Fla.), Booker, and Stearns, but Wiseman, who was Barry's starting pitcher in game two, made a diving catch to turn what would have been an infield hit by Artidiello into the third out of the inning. The next time the Mocs loaded the bases against Wiseman though, they'd come away with two runs.
It happened in the top of the fourth when Roberts delivered a leadoff single, and it was followed by walks from Lanci and sophomore pinch-hitter Sierra Lacey (Seffner, Fla.). That knocked Wiseman out of the game and brought in Sabol, but she was greeted with an RBI single by Booker that tied the game at one. After Sabol got two outs she issued a walk to Alexander that forced in another run and gave the Mocs a 2-1 lead.
Barry pushed across the tying run in the bottom of the fifth when Head led off with an infield single and came home a double by Copeland. That put runners at second and third with none out, but Loyer, who also started game two in the circle for the Mocs, ended the inning with two ground outs and a strikeout.
With the game still tied in the middle of the sixth inning, the longest rain delay of the night set in, with the teams forced to sit for 90 minutes. When the rain stopped, Barry left runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings before Pazienza hit the first pitch she saw with two out in the bottom of the eighth for her first home run of the season.
Sabol won the game in relief for Barry by pitching 5.0 scoreless innings and allowing five hits and three walks with two strikeouts. Jones took the loss for Florida Southern, falling to 7-7, giving up only the one run on three hits in 2.2 innings of relief.
The Mocs also got 6.0 strong innings from Loyer before the rain delay, with the sophomore surrendering only two runs on four hits with two strikeouts and two walks.
The Mocs also out-hit Barry 10-7, which included a 3-for-4 game by Stearns and two hits by Booker.
After playing 12 straight on the road, Florida Southern returns home to start a 9-game home-stand Wednesday with a 6 p.m. doubleheader against 10th-ranked Long Island-Post.
