Softball | 3/19/2021 8:30:00 AM
LAKELAND, Fla—Fresh off their latest appearance in the top 25, the 25th ranked Southeastern University softball team went 5-1 a week ago to improve their record to 18-7. Next up for the Fire is a road Sun Conference doubleheader against St. Thomas on Saturday scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm.
Last week the Fire split a doubleheader with No. 18 Grand View on Monday and then swept both their doubleheaders against Webber International and Calumet College of St. Joseph on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively.
Erica Stahl sparked the Fire to victory in game two against Grand View as she went 2-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs.
Autumn Hunter came on in relief in the circle to stop the Vikings late rally, pitching two shutout innings without allowing a baserunner.
The Fire swept the Warriors with two walk-off victories on Wednesday. In game one, Stahl pushed SEU to the 2-1 victory with an RBI-double that scored
Sam Holcomb. Game two went to extra innings and Southeastern found themselves down three when they went to the plate in the bottom of the eighth.
Britt Robinson ended the game with an RBI-single to left-field that scored
Madison Williams to win 8-7.
SEU swept Calumet by scores of 2-1 and 5-1 as Southeastern's pitching led them to victory.
Payton Thomas tossed six strong innings, striking out six and allowing only one run in game one.
Peyton Varela relieved Megan Froelich in game two and pitched three perfect innings in her first appearance of the season.
Thomas currently leads the team with an ERA of 2.05 and opponent batting average, with opposing hitters with an average of .209.
Atkins leads the Fire with 33 base hits and ranks seventh in the NAIA in that category.
As a team the Fire attack teams on the base paths and they rank sixth in the country with 47 stolen bases on the season. Williams and Holcomb lead the charge with 19 and 18 stolen bases, respectively. Williams also has the 12
th most RBIs in the nation with 23.
The St. Thomas Bobcats are 6-4 on the season entering play this week and open up their Sun Conference schedule when travel to Ave Maria on Wednesday. The Bobcats currently rank eighth with 20.7 putouts per game and are led by infielder Rachel Samaniego who averages 7.6 putouts per game, good for 12
th in the NAIA. Offensively, St. Thomas is paced by Eliza Artiles who leads the team with 13 hits and a batting average of .481. Daniela Bautista carries the team lead of RBIs with nine.
SEU is 7-0 all-time against St. Thomas and picked up a 2-0 win last time out as Froelich pitched a shutout while striking out three batters and allowing only five hits.
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