JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jacksonville University's softball team is playing for the right to enter the Atlantic Sun Championship as the sixth and final seed. On Tuesday afternoon, the Dolphins made a stride in the right direction by run-ruling Stetson in game two of the day's doubleheader.
Stetson 7, Jacksonville 4
Opportunities came early and often for the Dolphins as things sparked in the very first inning. Placing a runner on each base, Brooke Smith attempted to check her swing, but the frame ended on a slow roller to the pitcher.
A two-out, two-run double earned Stetson the game's first advantage in the third before JU responded in the home half of inning, loading the bases for the second time.
The Dolphins used back-to-back RBI-singles from Emily Sanchez and Brooke Smith to even the score at 2-2. Sanchez lined her first pitch to right field to drive in JU's first run while Smith hit to the opposite side. Jacksonville left the bases fully occupied but continued its momentum in the fourth.
The team held a 4-2 edge after Saturday's graduates Lexie Ballard recorded a sacrifice fly and Ashley Simon plated another run with a double to center.
Stetson pulled to within a run, 4-3, in the fifth and attempted to rally with runners on the corners and one out on the board. Smith took the wind out of Stetson's sails when she caught the runner on first stealing and Victoria Brown closed the inning with a backwards K, her fourth swinging strikeout.
In the seventh, tied 4-4, Stetson's leadoff batter doubled down the right field line and advanced an extra base after a sacrifice bunt. Three hits later, capped by a 2-RBI triple, the Hatters regained their lead, 7-4, and the score stuck as JU placed runners on second and third but couldn't bring either home.
The Dolphins left a total of 15 runners on base and concluded three innings with the bases loaded.
Brown, Baker, Simon and Sanchez each recorded multiple hits with Simon leading the way with a 3-for-5 effort. Brown recorded the loss with 12 hits surrendered in seven innings.
Jacksonville 9, Stetson 0
Understanding the gravity of its final four regular season games, Jacksonville came out in game two with a vengeance. Charged by their freshmen Kristen Griffith and Danielle Baker, each recording home runs in the third, the Fins split Wednesday's action with a 9-0 victory in game two. The Dolphins received production from the top to the bottom of their lineup with every player recording a hit.
Jacksonville posted at least one run in each inning and cracked the game open in the third when Griffith tallied a 2-RBI homer to left and Baker sent her 3-RBI shot to left center.
Brown pitched five innings, allowing five hits, in her 16th victory of the season.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29, the Fins look to claim the series. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m.
