WINTER PARK, Fla. (February 28, 2024) - Rollins received a massive confidence boost on Wednesday night, taking both ends of a doubleheader against #11 Wilmington. The two wins gives the Tars a 9-5 record on the season, while the Wildcats drop to 3-2 overall.
Game One
Rollins 10, Wilmington 2
A combination of great pitching from
Ashley Worrell and five defensive miscues from the Wildcats gave Rollins a mercy rule win in game one.
Taylor Waters got things going in the first with a moonshot home run to left center to score herself and
Grace Germer. Three batters later, Worrell would score on a throwing error to make it 3-0.
After Worrell put the Cats down in order for the second time, Rollins added a fourth run on a Worrell sac fly.
Wilmington looked to make noise in the fourth, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Unphased, the Tar defense threw two runnes out at home on ground balls to preserve their lead. Rollins took advantage of another Wildcat error when a simple pop fly was dropped with two outs, allowing
Kaeli Zahradnik and
Sarah Young to touch home.
The Wildcats scored the next two runs of the game to make the score 6-2. In the bottom of the fifth,
Brie Michelli doubled in Zahradnik, followed by another sac fly from Worrell that plated Michelli.
Hayley Lazo followed with an RBI double before
Taylor Hartman invoked the mercy rule with two outs, dropping a single into shallow center to bring in Lazo, to make the final of 10-2.
The Tars hit a preposterous 14-28 (.500) as a team. Six players had multiple hits, and seven players scored at least once. Worrell earned the win with five innings, two runs, and five strikeouts.
Game Two
Rollins 3, Wilmington 2
The night cap moved at a much more rapid pace as Kylee Gunkel and
Emily MacMullen were locked into a pitcher's duel.
Like seemingly every other game this year, Worrell got things started with an RBI single in the first that scored Michelli.
The second and third innings would fly by, but Wilmington would take a lead in the fourth. After MacMullen racked up six strikeouts in three innings, the Wildcats realized they could not hit the lefty. They turned to bunting, and were successful two times to lead off the inning. Each runner would come around to score on a pair of sac flies to make the score 2-1.
Fast forward to the sixth when Waters led off the inning with a single. Head coach
Christine Roser-LeFevers decided to re-enter Worrell, who had started at first but was replaced in the fourth. The move paid off as the sixth-year star hammered a two-run home run to right-center to give the Tars a 3-2 lead.
Keivana Durand, who had entered the circle for MacMullen in the fifth, was dialed in for the top of the seventh, putting the Cats down in order to secure the 3-2 win.
Worrell was 2-2 at the plate and drove in all three runs. MacMullen received a no-decision with four innings of two-hit, two-run ball that included seven strikeouts. Durand took the win with three innings of relief, one hit allowed, zero runs scored, and five strikeouts.
Rollins will stay at home this weekend as they host #15 Nova Southeastern in a SSC series. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 6:00 pm on Friday, March 1.
