Softball Eagles Win Two in Florida
2/27/2010 1:44:00 AM | Softball
FT. MYERS, Fla. - Georgia Southern finally put together a complete game. Eagles pitcher Brianna Streetmon (Winder, Ga.) (3-1) dominated Minnesota Golden Gophers hitters all day. More importantly, the Eagles defeated both opponents they faced on Day 1 of the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament.
Offensively, Georgia Southern started slower than they did in the first game, however, when the Eagles struck, they struck hard. In the bottom of third inning with the game scoreless, Marie Fogle (Rincon, Ga.) singled to second base. Megen Smith (Springfield, Ga.) homered to right center to give GSU a 2-0 lead. Sam Russo (Snellville, Ga.) followed Smith's homer with a single to left field and then Andrea Tarashuk (Flemington, NJ) doubled down the left field line to drive in Bethany Crenshaw (Warner Robins, Ga.), who was pinch running for Russo. By the time the Golden Gophers could get out of the inning, the damage had been done.
With a 3-0 lead in hand, Streetmon went to work on Golden Gopher batters. In the last four innings, Streetmon struck out four batters. Only four Gophers would reach second and none would advance further than at any point. Streetmon pitched seven innings of scoreless ball, allowing only three hits while striking out seven.
"We have really started to understand what it takes to find a way to win close ball games," coach Maggie Johnson said. "Our hitters are stepping up when we need them to and our pitchers have shut down some strong hitting teams."
Georgia Southern opened the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament with a 5-3 win over St. Francis (Pa.).
The Eagles started the game off with an infield single by Lowe's Senior CLASS candidate Nina Iduate (Norcross, Ga.). Iduate then stole second base, her third of the season. She advanced to third off a sacrifice by Smith (Springfield, Ga.). Russo's pop fly should have ended the inning. However, St. Francis' second baseman misplayed the ball, allowing Iduate to score, 1-0, Eagles.
The Eagles held the lead until the top of the fifth inning when an error by Fogle allowed three Red Flash players to score.
Trailing 3-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth, GSU rally started on Tarashuk's double down the left field line. Kayla Brooks (Jonesboro, Ga.), pinch running for Tarashuk, advanced to third on a sacrifice. Kelly Burnett (Boynton Beach, Fla.) reached on an error, putting Eagle runners on the corners. Kaitlynn Sczezpanski's (Chesapeake, Va.) double down the line scored both Brooks and Burnett. A Iduate walk followed by Fogle single through the left side scored Sczezpanski. The Eagles would suppress any Red Flash thoughts of a comeback in the top of the seventh.
Georgia Southern returns to action tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. against UConn. Following their contest with the Huskies, the Eagles will take on Villanova at 1 p.m. Both those games can be followed on the website, www.GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com under the Live Stats link at the bottom of the page.
