JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the first time since 2017, the Jacksonville University softball team has won 30 games in a season.
On Saturday, the 'Phins and the visiting Stetson Hatters split a pair of games, with Jacksonville walking off a winner in the eighth inning 2-1 but falling in the day's second game 8-5.
It was a title fight for team's atop the ASUN's graphite division, vying for one of the league's top two seeds in the ASUN Tournament. With the day's result, the two programs will meet for a rubber match on Sunday with first pitch set for 1 p.m.
The team's 30 wins are its most under head coach
Erica Ayers, who has also already eclipsed 200 wins for her career earlier this season.
Sarah Beth Brake was the guilty party for the walk-off winner, the sixth of the year for the Dolphins. Stetson got ahead 1-0 in the first inning via a solo homer but
Kate Linkletter evened the game in the third with an RBI-single. Both schools remained deadlocked into extra innings where Brake blasted her team-leading 12
th homer to win the game.
Brake now has 13 homers and is inching ever closer to the all-time single-season home run record. Her 13
th jack placed Brake in a tie for second all-time in single season homers, trailing just JU Hall of Famer Sarah Simon's 16 set in 2013.
To her own credit,
Alison Carter hit her 12
th double of the year in the win which gave the graduate player from Virginia 37 for her career. She now owns the solo second spot in the all-time record books, just one double behind Katie Kelly's record of 28 set from 2008-11.
It wasn't a huge day at the dish for the 'Phins as they outhit Stetson 7-4. No Dolphin had more than one hit. Freshman
Vic Brunette knocked in a double for her lone hit of the game, good for her fourth two-bagger of her first college season.
None other than
Jacy Harrelson got the start for Jacksonville and went the distance. She fanned nine in her 19
th win of the season.
Harrelson's electrifying sophomore season has seen her hit nine or more Ks three times and she has nine games this year with over five strikeouts. Her 19 wins also places her second all-time in the single-season record books, trailing just ASUN and JU Hall of Famer Sarah Sigrest Caffrey's 27 single-season wins.
Stetson jumped ahead in the second game again early, this time going up 3-0 before JU could respond.
Down by a trio in the bottom of the second,
Tatum McCool scored a runner on an RBI-single before a fielder's choice single saw Linkletter reach first and McCool snag home plate.
Later, down 6-2, Jacksonville again mounted a two-run inning that saw pitcher
Reese Wells hit an RBI-single up the gut of the defense and McCool again scoring a runner on a single. McCool ended her day with a 2-4 showing a team-high two RBIs. Wells finished 2-3.
In the final frame of the day, staring back at a 8-4 deficit, pinch hitter
Alayna Gaddy showed no fear and cranked a double that ricocheted off the outfield wall in left and scored a runner. It was the final run of the game however, as two more outs sealed the contest.
Wells and frosh
Margaret Jenkins shared time on the bump Saturday, with Wells pitching six innings and Jenkins coming in for one. Wells fanned a trio while Jenkins allowed just one hit.
The Dolphins and Stetson square off Sunday for what a heavyweight bout for the potential rights to the Graphite Division's top overall seed. Jacksonville, which has already clinched its spot in the tournament, finishes the year next week with UNF starting on Thursday, April 30.
