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MIAMI – Georgia Southern Softball went 2-0 in the second day of the FIU Classic to advance to Sunday's Championship Game. GS took a pair of wins over FGCU, taking game one by a 6-2 margin and posting a 9-1 win in game two. The Eagles will face FIU at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
"I think we played a great couple of games today," said Head Coach
Annie Smith. "Our batters hit well up and down the lineup, plus
Breanna McLendon and
Morgan Robinson got their first career home runs. We made some good plays on the basepaths and our pitchers did their job for us to get a couple of great wins today."
GAME ONE
GS 6, FGCU 2
The Eagles got production throughout the lineup, but it was the bottom of the order that delivered the power in game one. Catcher AJ Hamilton and centerfielder
Breanna McLendon, sitting eighth and ninth in the batting order, hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the seventh to solidify the 6-2 victory over Florida Gulf Coast.
Georgia Southern got the scoring started in the fourth inning when a Morgan Johnson single to center plate
Kourtny Thomas. Gulf Coast answered in the bottom of the inning with a bunt single and a home run to centerfield for their first and only hits of the game. The offensive flurry gave FGCU a 2-1 advantage after four complete.
The GS offense responded with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. The first came from an
Emily Snider triple which pushed McLendon across and the other off a
Dominique Grossman single that scored Snider to post a 3-2 Georgia Southern lead.
The home runs by Hamilton and McLendon opened the seventh, while
Morgan Robinson sent Grossman home with a single to third base, accounting for the final 6-2 line.
Purivs struck out four batters in the two-hitter. She went the distance and improved her record this season to 3-1.
GAME TWO
FGCU 1, GS 9
The Eagles got another win over the defending Atlantic Sun Conference Champions in Saturday's second time, this time by a 9-1 margin. Three home runs by Georgia Southern turbocharged the scoring that led to the Eagles' third run rule victory of the season.
Kourtny Thomas put the Eagles on top in the first inning with a two-run home run, her third of the season with two outs in the frame.
Morgan Robinson, the next batter, followed suit with a home run of her own to hand the Eagle pitching staff a 3-0 lead through one inning.
Three-straight two out hits in the second inning scored a run and left two more for
Shelby Morrill. The senior third baseman clubbed a three-run job over the fence to stake the Eagles to a 7-0 lead at the end of the second inning.
FGCU got a run in the third inning, taking advantage of a Georgia Southern throwing error to cut the margin to 7-1.
Georgia Southern completed the run-rule victory in the fifth inning by plating a pair of runs off three hits and an FGCU error to go up by eight runs. Three runners were stranded on base as the game ended and the Eagles improved to 6-2 on the season.
Brooke Red improved to 2-1 on the season with the five-inning complete game in the circle. She worked around five FGCU hits and allowed the one unearned run to go with six strikeouts.
The Eagles close out the FIU Classic on Sunday in the Championship Game against either FIU at 12:30 p.m.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics.
