KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The Georgia Southern softball team split a pair of games Saturday on the second day of the Citrus Classic at ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex. The Eagles opened the day by holding on for a 4-3 win over Ball State before falling to undefeated Lehigh 9-4 in the second game of the day.
GS 4, BSU 3
Dixie Raley ran into some trouble in the first inning, needing 42 pitches to get out of a jam. She walked three and gave up a double, but only allowed one run to score and minimized the damage. In the third inning,
Mekhia Freeman reached on a two-out error and scored on
Emily Snider's sharp single up the middle.
Raley kept the Eagles in it, settling down after a rough first inning until the GS bats could manufacture a run. That run came in the top of the fifth inning when Freeman doubled and moved to third base on Snider's single.
Hannah Farrell then fouled off several pitches before singling up the middle to give the Eagles their first lead of the game. Ball State then came right back with a solo home run to lead off the bottom half of the inning to tie it back up.
In the sixth inning, the Eagles capitalized on a key BSU error to extend the inning. Eventually,
Lydia Witkowski reached on an infield single in which she danced around the batted ball coming out of the box to drive in
Alesha Mann.
In the seventh inning, Snider ripped a triple to right field and scored on a sacrifice fly from Farrell that was fouled out by the BSU dugout. On the play, the third baseman and catcher collided, leaving home plate open for Snider to scoot home to make it 4-2. That head's up play ended up being big as BSU got a leadoff home run in the seventh, and then put two more runners on, but a line out ended the game.
The Eagles pounded out eight hits in the game, led by three from Snider and two from Farrell. Also picking up hits were Witkowski, Freeman and Mann.
In the circle, Raley got the win, going five innings.
Kierra Camp picked up her first save of the season.
Lehigh 9, GS 4
The Mountain Hawks broke through in the second inning with a two-RBI double and then plated another run on a sharp single through the right side. Lehigh tacked on an unearned run in the third inning to make it 4-0. In the fourth inning, Mann led off with a single and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly from freshman
Abby Broome. Witkowski later drove in a run with a double to cut the lead in half.
In the fifth inning, pinch runner
Haley Carter scampered around the base paths from first base on Farrell's double to the gap. The Eagles tied it up later in the inning when Mann's single to the gap plated pinch runner
Macy Weeks. In the seventh inning, Lehigh strung three hits together to start the inning to plate the winning run. The Eagles would go on to commit two straight errors that would help lead to four more runs for Lehigh.
Davis led the offense with three hits while Mann and Witkowski both had two hits. Snider, Farrell,
Shelby Wilson and Freeman all had one hit.
Camp got the start and went the distance. She gave up four earned runs and struck out one.
UP NEXT:
The Eagles will wrap up their weekend in Florida on Sunday, taking on Fordham at 11:45 a.m.
