ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – On a cool Thursday afternoon with a slight eastbound breeze coming off the nearby coast, the Fire traveled to take on NCAA Division II Eckerd College. The Fire took game one by a score of 3-2 but fell in game two 4-3.
Game 1: The Tritons jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the 1
st. Nikole Van Gennep led-off the inning with a double and later came around to score after an RBI double by Rachel Lukett. After the 1
st , the Fire's Lindsie Scholwinski settled in and dealt four scoreless innings.
The Fire broke the goose-egg in the top of the 5
th with the help of
Sydnie Malloy. The first pitch she saw in her second at bat the Spirit Lake, Idaho native drove it over the center field wall to knot the game up a 1-1. Later in that inning
Taylor Stoltz worked a ten pitch walk and came around to score after a two out RBI single by
Natalie Hughes.
"Natalie put together a quality at bat when we needed it" said head coach
Anna Welsh.
In the bottom of the 6
th the Tritons pushed across another run after a one out walk was singled home with two outs.
The deciding run was scored in the top of the 7
th. Cheyenne Blaha launched a lazar into the right centerfield and was in at second standing up. Stoltz advanced Blaha to third after a sacrifice-bunt when
Cat Maldonado's RBI single up the middle gave the Fire a 3-2 lead.
Scholwinksi then sat the Tritons down in order to secure the Fire's third win of the season.
Game 2: The Fire capitalized on an infield error in the 2
nd inning off the bat of
Sam Holcomb. The astray throw from the Triton first baseman allowed
Brandee Pietrzak to score from third.
Stef Guercio who finished the game with 10 strikeouts, gave up a two run home run which gave the Tritons an early 2-1 lead. But the Fire kept battling.
With the bases loaded in the top of the 4
th Malloy was hit by a pitch that allowed the pinch runner,
Sammy Jacobson, to score from third.
The Fire utilized the momentum gained in the 4
th inning to push across another run in the 5
th to take a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, the Tritons were able to string a few key hits together to take a 4-3 lead where the score would remain.
The women will be back in action next Thursday when they play an exhibition doubleheader against the Czech National Team.
