Birmingham, AL - Jacksonville University softball split their doubleheader on Saturday morning at the second day of the UAB Tournament. The Dolphins earned a redemption victory  against Furman University but dropped game two to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"Two great ball games today, We pitched and played great defense. We battled offensively and gave ourselves a chance, that is all you can ask. I believe in our guys to pull it out more times than not," commented Head Coach Erica Ayers. 

Game One

The Dolphins proved themselves to Furman this morning after falling to them yesterday afternoon in a 3-2 final. Jacksonville shutout the Paladains by a final score of 3-0.
Alyssa Bilodeau was in the circle for JU and went seven innings and struck out a career high 17 batters on the way to her seventh victory of the season. The La Plata, Md. Native faced 27 batters and only allowed three hits.

Bilodeau has amassed 95 strikeouts on the year and continues to lead the ASUN this season.  While she continued to throw strikes the Dolphins' lineup did the rest of the work.

Jacksonville and Furman were both scoreless through the early frames, but the offense got off to a hot start in the second. After Kassidy Cross walked, the senior moved into scoring position off a single from Abby Genest and advanced to third when Jacqueline Hodskins did the same. Carolyn O'Neal brought Cross home for the first run of the morning with a single back to the pitcher. Genest gave JU the 2-0 lead thanks to a sacrifice fly from Madison Kennedy.

Furman struggled to put together any hits through the middle frames as Bilodeau struck out 11 batters before the Paladins recorded their trio of hits.

Caroline Watson started off the sixth inning for Dolphins with a single to right field, brining in Ashley Darakjian in to pinch run. Darakjian advanced to second when Genest bunted for a single and she moved to third off a sacrifice bunt from Hodksins. Carolyn O'Neal recorded her second RBI single of the morning and Jacksonville increased their lead to 3-0 as Darakjian ran home.

Bilodeau sealed the victory in the seventh when she struck out three batters looking.
 
GAME TWO
Jacksonville softball concluded their doubleheader matchup with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The Dolphins struggled to record hits in game two which resulted in UAB taking a low scoring 1-0 victory.

Skylar Whitty made her third start of the weekend and pitched five innings before being relieved by Seana Mora. The sophomore only allowed two hits but let up the lone UAB homerun that proved enough the prevent the 'Phins from going 2-0 on the afternoon.
 
The Dolphins had a tough time against the UAB pitcher. Kayana Perez lead off the bottom of the sixth reaching first on a throwing error by third base and advanced to second, but the rest of the batting order struggled to make a go of it as they took three quick outs. 

 Madison Kennedy and Kassidy Cross both went 1 for 3 on the afternoon with singles to center field.

On Deck:
The Dolphins will close out the weekend with a 9AM game against Colgate before heading home to Jacksonville for a midweek matchup against Auburn on Tuesday evening.