LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire used late inning dramatics to steal a game from their opponent for the second consecutive game, before dropping the latter of the two contests with #17 Grand View University.
Little was happening in game one until the top of the fourth inning when the Vikings strung together four successful at bats. During that stretch, one player reached on a walk, three singled, and three runs came around to score, giving Grand View a 3-0 advantage.
Defensive play kept the Fire in striking distance, as Southeastern turned two double plays in the first five innings of the game.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Fire started to chip away at the deficit. After
Cat Maldonado and
Heather Faulk got on base,
Brandee Pietrzak scored them both with a double down the left field line, making it a 3-2 game.
The Vikings added a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth inning to extend their lead to 4-2. However, Pietrzak, who went 4-for-4 with four RBIs in the contest, would not let the Fire go down. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Pietrzak drove a two-run homerun over the left field fence to tie the game at four.
After the Pietrzak bomb, a walk and two singles loaded the bases for
Sydnie Malloy. Malloy drew a walk on four pitches to win the contest 5-4. This marked the second game in a row that the Fire had come back from at least a three run deficit to win. Senior pitcher
Lindsie Scholwinski picked up her seventh win of the season, while striking out three batters and only allowing three earned runs on the day.
Game two began in the same way game one of the doubleheader did.
Stef Guercio, who struck out eight Grand View batters and threw 121 pitches, kept the Vikings at bay by only allowing one hit into the third inning.
The Vikings then exploded for three runs on four hits and one Fire error to take a 3-0 lead.
Four Grand View players recorded multiple hits in the contest, while only one Fire player, Faulk, tallied more than one hit. Southeastern did get on base, but had a difficult time scoring runs in game two. The Vikings committed three errors, in addition to the Fire's six hits, but SEU stranded eight runners, including one on an inning-ending double play in the sixth that allowed Grand View to escape unharmed.
The Vikings took game two by a score of 4-0. Lexi Merrit and Devin Brown both went 2-for-4 and added two RBIs for Grand View. Brown also came around to score twice.
Southeastern will be back in action in conference play at Keiser University on Friday at 4pm.
