WINTER PARK, Fla. (March 23, 2010) - The
19th-ranked Rollins softball claimed the first victory of the
series over conference foe Florida Southern, 6-2, Tuesday evening.
The Tars improve to 1-0 in conference play with the victory and
look to exact revenge for two losses last year to the
Moccasins.
Rollins (24-3) used the big bat of Lauren
Caldwell to get on the board early as she drilled a leadoff
homerun over the center field fence in the first inning to put the
Tars up 1-0.
Caldwell went 4-for-5 on the evening with two RBIs and was a double
shy of hitting for the cycle. Caldwell also scored two runs to lead
the Tars and collected all three outs in the fourth inning to shut
down the Mocs attack.
The Tars would score two more in the second inning after Florida
Southern had two outs and looked like they would get out of the
inning without any runs being scored. As the case has been all
season, the Tars have hit well with two outs in the inning and
proved it yet again tonight. Caldwell's triple scored Brittney Pumpelly,
who reached on a fielder's choice. The next batter, Amber
Pederson would drive home Caldwell with an RBI single to push
the lead to 3-0.
The Tars would score a run in the fifth and would cap off the
scoring with two in the sixth inning to push the lead to 6-0. Two
runs that would prove to be important as a six run deficit proved
to be too much to overcome.
Florida Southern would not go away easily in the seventh as they
posted two runs and threatened with the bases loaded before Frame
was able to retire Peggy Alex with a strikeout to end the game.
Jessica
Moreland also came up big offensively with two RBIs as she went
1-for-2 and was joined by Brittney
Pumpelly and Amber Pederson, who
collected one RBI each.
Florida Southern used three different pitchers, but that was not
enough to throw off the bats of the Tars. Rollins tallied 11 hits
against the pitching staff and worked the pitch counts to their
favor all evening long.
The loss drops the Moccasins to 15-11 overall and 1-3 in conference
play. Brittaney Alderman picks up the loss and falls to 8-5 on the
season as the Florida Southern offense couldn't muster enough
offensive support to get by the Tars.
Rollins will finish up the series with a doubleheader against
the Moccasins on Wednesday, Mar. 24 at 6 p.m.
