LAKELAND, Fla. - The Florida Southern College softball team dropped the series opener to No. 19 Rollins College on Friday evening. The Moccasins (16-33, 8-20 SSC) battled, but the hot at-bats from the Tars (36-11, 19-9 SSC) led the way to a 6-0 victory with 11 hits.
FSC had just two hits on the night coming from
Jadyn Bushnell and
Gabby Young, while Rollins was led by Grace Germer in the leadoff spot going 3-for-4 with an RBI. In the circle, Ashley Worrell (21-5) got the win, pitching a complete game earning the shutout with just two hits and striking out five. For the Mocs,
Taylor Thomas came in to relief pitching three innings allowing no runs on four hits and striking out three.
Ashley Blessin (5-9) faced the loss going four innings allowing seven hits and five earned runs on 20 batters faced.
Florida Southern's defense started strong with three up, and three down to open the first two innings of the series. It wasn't until the top of the third that the first hit of the game came with a leadoff single from the Tars Claire Long to start the motion. Long would move around the bases, scoring on a two-out RBI down the leftfield line from Germer to get out to a 1-0 lead.
With a 1-0 lead, Rollins continued to capitalize on their lead, scoring five more runs in the top of the fifth. The Tars would reach on a Moc error and put runners on the corners after a stolen base and single, threatening at third with no outs. Another stolen base put both runners in scoring position as Kaeli Zahradnik hit a bases-clearing double to move the Rollins lead up to 3-0.
The Tars continued to add to their lead, scoring another two runs from Taylor Waters double to make it a 5-0 game. The final run was scored when Sarah Young hit an RBI single that scored Waters to make it 6-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, Bushnell had the first hit of the game for the Mocs with a single to left field. Bushnell would move around the bases to get within 60 feet of home, but a groundout left FSC scoreless.
In the remaining innings, the Tars contributed one hit, but the Mocs never allowed the runs to score. In the bottom of the seventh, Young tried to get a rally going hitting a single to through the ride side moving Bushnell into scoring position after a walk but the runners were left stranded and game one of the three-game series went to Rollins.
Florida Southern returns to action tomorrow evening as they host Rollins in the final games of the year. The doubleheader is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. on Chris Bellotto Field.
