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Box Score 2 LAKELAND – When 29 hits show up on the box score and the cleanup hitter for each team has four of them, it's easy to guess what type of game went down in the opener of Friday afternoon's doubleheader between Florida Southern and Florida Tech. It was the type of game Leah Pemberton enjoyed, with four hits and four RBI, but not the pitchers, with the Panthers out-scoring the Moccasins 11-6. In game two, however, Brandi Jones took one back for the hurlers and helped the Mocs to a 6-1 victory that gave them two-out-of-three in the Sunshine State Conference series.
To be fair to the pitchers in game one Friday, many of the hits fell into the category of seeing-eye singles, balls that somehow made it through the infield or nicked off the end of a glove when they were perhaps an inch or two away from the webbing. Some were of the infield variety too, and only two (one for each team) went for extra bases. The stat line may not have looked good for the pitchers, but neither was it as bad as it seemed at first glance. Still, the 29 combined hits were the second most in a regulation-length Florida Southern softball game in the last 20 years (there were 31 in a game last season against Ohio Dominican), and it was the highest scoring game in the all-time series with Florida Tech since the Mocs won a 15-7 decision over the Panthers in 1995.
Pemberton went 4-for-4 with four RBI in game one, which included a 3-run homer in the bottom of the fifth that trimmed the deficit to 6-4. Taylor Peterson also went 4-for-4 for Florida Tech and drove in two runs while four other Panthers had three hits. Florida Tech had 17 as a team, and Florida Southern had 12, with Kylee Stearns, Jordan Alexander and Jessica Lanci all joining Pemberton with at least two.
Florida Tech (30-13, 9-6) scored the first five runs of the game, including four in the top of the second when they had three hits and received four walks. One came in on a triple by Audrey Gangloff, two more scored on a single by Brigit Godfrey, and the last of those scored on a base hit by Nicole Shinsky, with Stearns throwing another runner out at the plate on that same play to end the inning.
Stearns then gave the Mocs their first run with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, and after the Panthers went up 6-1 in the top of the fourth, Pemberton clubbed her team-leading fifth home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth. That came after singles by Gianni Artidiello and Alexander.
Florida Tech scored five more runs over the next two innings, with Peterson picking up hits in each of them, Shinsky driving in her third run of the game, and Ashley Montion hitting a sacrifice fly in both the sixth and seventh. That put the Panthers ahead 11-4, and there was still more scoring to come.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Mocs got singles from Lanci and Stearns, and both of them came around to score on two more singles by Alexander and Pemberton. Florida Tech pitcher Taylor Smith finally got the last out of the game with a ground ball to third as she survived six runs (five earned) on 12 hits. The grad student struck out two and did not issue a walk.
Hannah Loyer and Taylor Bowen split the game nearly evenly for the Moccasins, with Loyer falling to 3-6. Her day was far from over though, as the sophomore got the start in centerfield in the nightcap and produced at the plate with two hits and an RBI that helped the Mocs win 6-1.
In that one, Jones scattered six hits, struck out five and walked one while upping her record to 10-11. The sophomore retired the final nine Panther hitters for the win, and struck out the side in the top of the seventh. The only run against her came in the top of the first when Elaine Brown, who had five hits in the doubleheader and seven in the 3-game series, singled into left and scored immediately after on a double by Nicole Miller.
Jones had some mild trouble in the third when Godfrey and Brown started that inning with back-to-back singles, but Pemberton helped her out by spearing a line drive off the bat of Miller and doubling Godfrey off second. The Panthers had just two more base runners the rest of the game, one of them a triple by Kaci Kelley in the fourth.
After scoring five runs in the first inning against Florida Tech ace Rachel Pence on Thursday night, the Moccasins got to her for four in the second on Friday. Pemberton's double started the big inning, a single by Kim Booker followed, and Maggie Roberts was later intentionally walked to load the bases. Lanci then singled in Pemberton with the tying run and a triple by Artidiello brought in three more and put the Mocs ahead 4-1.
Pemberton was intentionally walked in the fifth but the Mocs still ended up scoring in that inning too on an RBI single by Loyer, and they turned a leadoff double by Roberts in the sixth into another run after a Florida Tech error.
Pence fell to 19-10 with the loss, going the first five innings and giving up five runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Loyer and Lanci had two hits apiece for the Moccasins in game two.
Florida Southern will be at home again Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. doubleheader against Warner. They're the Moccasins' final non-conference games of the season.
