JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville softball kicked off its eight-game home stretch with Samford on Saturday evening. In the first game of the doubleheader, the Dolphins saw their five-game winning streak come to an end, dropping a 10-2 decision to the Bulldogs before the latter 3-2 setback.
Jacksonville looks to avoid the series sweep in the 1 p.m. finale on Sunday, March 15.
Samford 10, Jacksonville 2
Three up and three down. Victoria Brown took to the mound for Jacksonville and started the ballgame forcing three groundouts to quickly move the things along to the bottom of the first.
Before today's action, Samford's Mollie Hanson had only walked nine batters on the year. Her 10th to Brown allowed the Dolphins two runners on base with no outs as Danielle Baker leadoff the inning with an infield single.
With JU threatening, Hanson escaped the half with three straight outs.
Samford was the first to advance a runner to third. The baserunner later became the second out as Brown flipped it to catcher for the play at home on a fielder's choice. Solid defensive play continued when JU's shortstop lifted her team out of a jam on a diving grab. In a bang-bang play, the freshman Baker sent a rocket to first to record the final out of the third frame, leaving two runners on base.
Through five innings, the Dolphins left five runners on base with four in scoring position. The pitching duel continued until Samford ripped a double over the head of JU's centerfielder to bring a runner home.
There were a few bizarre circumstances in the stanza, highlighted by what appeared to be a line drive to Brown and her subsequent throw to third. It would have been a double play to end the inning but instead a Bulldog scored as the umpire behind the plate stunned the crowd ruling that Brown didn't cleanly catch the ball. Before the frame concluded, Samford tacked seven runs on the board.
Brown's first hit of the game was an RBI single in the fifth and the Dolphins later walked in a runner in the sixth. A three-run seventh stretched Samford's lead and the ballgame concluded 10-2.
Samford 3, Jacksonville 2
In the second game of the day, in similar fashion to the first outing, there were scoreless innings to start things off. Samford was again the first to strike and held a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning.
The Bulldogs tacked on their final run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth before JU trimmed Samford's advantage to 3-2 in the bottom of the stanza.
With runners on first and second, Emily Sanchez singled up the middle, scoring JU's first run of the game. Kristen Griffith followed suit a batter later with her RBI-single up the middle.
Taylor Rossman allowed two Bulldog hits in the sixth but that would be all either team would muster. The game concluded with an almost clean sheet on no runs, no hits, no errors and one left on base (Brooke Smith was hit by a pitch in the sixth).
Rossman pitched the complete game going all seven innings with nine hits, one earned run and three strikeouts.
Griffith concluded the day 3-for-6 with an RBI and a run scored.
