Box Score LAKELAND – The scoring chances for Florida Southern and Saint Leo were fairly equal Friday night, but the Lions used three extra-base hits to score all five of their runs, and the Moccasins left 11 runners on base in a frustrating night against Sunshine State Conference ERA leader Alana Tabel. Saint Leo ultimately got the 5-0 win behind two RBI apiece from Cassie Boggs and Brittany Creamer, and the fifth straight shutout from its pitching staff.
Over the course of Friday night's game, the Moccasins had five hits and four walks against Tabel, who came into the contest with a 0.99 earned run average. They also had three players reach on errors, giving them a total of 12 base runners in the game. The Lions managed only nine against sophomore Brandi Jones (Snellville, Ga.) but got five of them home, with their biggest hits coming from Boggs, Creamer, and Michelle George. The Moccasins on the other hand went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position, 1-for-21 with runners on base, and stranded 11 despite having Tabel on the ropes several times.
The Mocs put their first two hitters of the night on base when senior Gianni Artidiello (Miami, Fla.) walked and senior Kylee Stearns (Lakeland, Fla.) singled. In a sign of things to come, the inning ended on an interference call against the Mocs on a ground ball between second and third, one of three times that call was made in the game.
The Lions then took the lead when Boggs doubled leading off the top of the second and came home on a triple by George. A bloop single by Creamer into short left field brought in George with another run, and the Lions were up 2-0. Boggs gave them two more in the third inning with a 2-run triple, and Creamer later homered in the sixth.
Jones gave up nine hits for Florida Southern, struck out three and did not issue a walk while falling to 13-14. She also had a remarkable seventh inning in which she needed only three pitches to record three outs.
Meanwhile, Tabel managed to keep Florida Southern from scoring as she worked out of trouble all night for her 16th win of the season against only five defeats. She gave up five hits, walked four and had five strikeouts, with sophomore Hannah Loyer (Bradenton, Fla.) collecting two of those hits with leadoff singles in the fourth and sixth innings.
Florida Southern might have scored in the fourth if not for a big defensive play by Saint Leo second baseman Torrie Weindorf. With Loyer on second and freshman Jordan Sheppard (Germantown, Md.) on first following a walk, freshman Ashlyn Worcester (Bloomingdale, Ill.) hit a ball sharply up the middle. Weindorf made a diving stop to keep it from reaching the outfield and got it to Creamer at the bag barely in time to force Sheppard. Senior Priscilla Gonzalez (Miami, Fla.) then lofted a fly ball into medium right that wasn't quite deep enough to score Loyer and the inning ended with another interference call involving Creamer.
Florida Southern and Saint Leo wrap up their series and the regular season on Saturday with a 12 p.m. doubleheader at Barnett Field. Those games have been moved up one hour from their original start time.
