WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Florida Southern College softball team split the doubleheader against Palm Beach Atlantic on Saturday afternoon, winning game one in nine innings 9-8, before falling in game two 9-1 in six innings.
The Moccasins (8-34, 3-21 SSC) were led by
Alissa Kessler in game one going 2-for-3 while
Morgan Roden drove in three runs. In game two,
Shelby Savitt led the Mocs from the plate going 2-for-3, while
Keira Morris went 1-for-3 with a double.
FLORIDA SOUTHERN 9, PALM BEACH ATLANTIC 8
With the series on the line, the Mocs and Sailfish both battled it out exchanging leads and tying the game until the final out in extras. PBA broke first to get out to an early 3-0 lead scoring from a Moc error and a 2 RBI triple. Florida Southern tied the game 3-3 in the following inning scoring from a sacrifice fly and a Sailfish that scored two.
Florida Southern jumped out to a 5-3 lead with lead-off singles from
Kate Mikle and
Shelby Savitt. With one out,
Morgan Roden singled to score Mikle and Savitt as the Mocs led 5-3. PBA tacked on one run in the bottom of the third scoring on a sacrifice fly but FSC stayed on top until the bottom of the fourth.
With the Mocs out to a 5-4 lead, the Sailfish rallied in the bottom of the fourth scoring on back-to-back RBI singles to jump one run ahead of FSC and head into the fifth with a 6-5 lead. The Moccasins turned to rally on their own, scoring on a two-out RBI single from
Jadyn Bushnell and a Sailfish error to get back out to a one-run lead, 7-6.
In the bottom of the fifth, PBA tied the game once game scoring from an RBI single to make it 7-all. The next inning both teams scored to keep the game tied as
Cat Buckner hit an RBI single for the Mocs and a sacrifice fly for the Sailfish to end the sixth inning tied up once again.
With the game tied up at 8-8, FSC and PBA would look ahead to extras. After one complete inning nothing coming across the Mocs broke the silence in the top of the ninth with an RBI single from
Emma Lucchesi to give FSC the go-ahead run heading into the bottom of the ninth. With just needing three outs to earn the win,
Amanda Lieberman struck out the first batter, threw out the second batter, and
Gabby Young concluded the game by catching the final out in center field that concluded game one with a 9-8 win for the Mocs in extras.
In the circle,
Kayla Hickey got the nod pitching three innings and striking out four batters. Lieberman (2-7) came in for relief pitching six innings allowing just one earned run on nine hits while striking out two to earn the win.
FLORIDA SOUTHERN 1, PALM BEACH ATLANTIC 9
The Sailfish jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after two innings of play making the Mocs have to work back from a small deficit. Florida Southern opened with back-to-back hits from Mikle and Savitt but both runners were left stranded in scoring position after loading the bases from a hit by pitch to Kessler.
The Sailfish contained the 4-0 lead until the top of the fifth when the Mocs scored a run to cut the lead down to 4-1 after a PBA error. The score remained 4-1, as the game headed into the bottom of the sixth and that is where the bats came alive for the Sailfish scoring five runs to jump out to an eight-run lead and end the game due to run rule, 9-1.
Florida Southern returns to Chris Bellotto field on Thursday, April 17 as they host Lynn University in another SSC series. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
