LAKELAND, Fla.— On Wednesday, the Fire will head to St. Petersburg to play NCAA Division II opponent, Eckerd College, for a doubleheader beginning at 4pm.
The Southeastern Fire softball team started their season with a bang, defeating Edward Waters in five innings in both games of their opening day doubleheader last week.
The Fire took no time getting into a rhythm on offense, scoring five runs in the opening frame. Southeastern was then able to capitalize on a couple Tiger mistakes with an eight-run third inning, including a three-run blast by
Cheyenne Blaha, which extended the advantage to 15.
Lindsie Scholwinski started her 2017 campaign right where she left off, coasting through four innings while facing only 15 batters.
In the second game against the Tigers, the freshman pitcher,
Stef Guercio, made her collegiate debut. Guercio struck out five batters through four innings and only allowed a single hit, keeping Edward Waters off of the board. It took a little longer for the Fire bats to wake up in the latter of the two games, but Southeastern tallied a couple of runs in the third inning before a grand slam by Sun Conference Player of the Week,
Brandee Pietrzak, put the game away for the Fire.
After beginning their season with a win, Eckerd College dropped three straight at the EC Spring Invitational in Clearwater. The Tritons handled Chadron State College by a score of 4-0 but then lost back-to-back games to NCAA Division II opponents, Florida Southern College and the University of Tampa, by 3-1 scores.
Nikole Van Gennep, the sophomore pitcher for the Tritons, was instrumental in their opening game shutout win against Chadron State. Van Gennep only allowed two hits in her start and struck out seven batters. Look for Eckerd to attempt to draw walks to generate offense against Southeastern's pitching staff, as the Tritons scored three of their four runs on walks in the contest. In their game against Florida Southern, Eckerd drew a total of eight walks.
After the Fire take on Eckerd, they will face the Czech National Team, as well as four NAIA teams, in Plant City next weekend.
