JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Dolphins combined stellar pitching and colossal hitting into a double-header sweep of Murray State and Ball State Saturday.
Victoria Brown and Taylor Rossman each pitched complete games, and allowed a total of five runs to the Racers and Cardinals. Jacksonville never trailed in either contest.
Jacksonville 4, Murray State 2
The Dolphins got some creative scoring in the bottom of the first against Murray State. Danielle Baker kicked off the atypical inning by getting on base after an error by the first baseman. Allie McCourt by struck out swinging but reached first base anyway after the catcher dropped the strike. In Heather Roberts' at-bat McCourt stole second and Baker reached third on a wild pitch, and then both runners stole bases to put the Dolphins up 1-0. Emily Sanchez sac-flied to right field to drive McCourt across, and just like that the Dolphins scored two runs without a single hit.
In the third the Dolphins' defense got a bit lax, allowing three errors in the inning that allowed the bases to get loaded. Murray State's Jessica Twaddle hit a single that drove two Racers home, but Brown was able to stop the bleeding by forcing Taylor Odom to fly out to center field.
Small ball helped the Dolphins score again in the third and the fourth innings, with singles driving runners across in both innings. The score would remain 4-2 for the rest of the game. Brown got into a bit of trouble in the seventh with a runner on third with one out and the tying run at the plate, but she forced a ground out to third and an infield fly to the short stop to close the game.
Jacksonville 11, Ball State 3
The Dolphin bats exploded in the second game of the double-header. In the first inning alone Jacksonville had two home runs, including a bomb by Baker on the second pitch of the game and a two-run homer by Brown with two outs.
The Cardinals looked like they might put up a fight when they scored two runs on an India Steward homer, but Rossman would allow just one more run and two more hits the rest of the game.
The Dolphins had home runs in the first, third, and fifth inning by Baker, Brown, Sanchez, and Kristen Griffith.
The Dolphins ended the day with some more creative scoring. Roberts was walked to open up the bottom of the sixth, and then the next three batters singled. Kamille Larrabee was walked on the next at-bat with the bases loaded, driving in another run. With the bases loaded Jacqueline Hodskins advanced to first on a wild pitch, which allowed Adrienne Ramsay to score the 11th run of the game and induce the run rule.
