CLEARWATER, Fla.—Southeastern ran through the elimination bracket during Friday's play at The Sun Conference Softball Championship to earn a spot in Saturday's final.
The Fire defeated Warner 4-1, then Coastal Georgia 4-2 before closing the night with a 9-2 win over Thomas.
This is the second time the Fire have won three elimination games in the conference tournament in one day. The 2017 team did the same, and likewise, avenged a loss to Thomas in the third game after dropping the first game of the tournament to TU.
Against Warner, the Fire offense struggled through the early innings registering just one hit through the first four innings against Warner pitcher Tiffany Dodson.
Madison Williams picked up a one out single in the top of the fifth and stole second base. A groundout moved her to third and then scored on a passed ball.
Jamie Mead drew a walk and stole second, then advanced to third and scored on wild pitches.
Mead drove in
Riley Sanders in the top of the seventh with a two-out RBI double to left, then scored on an RBI single by
Haleigh Harrell.
The only damage against pitchers
Autumn Hunter and
Claire Sekinger came with a leadoff triple in the bottom of the seventh which was followed by an RBI single down the left field line.
Hunter went four shutout innings, allowing two walks and five hits and struck out one. Sekinger earned the save working three innings, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts. The tandem kept 11 Warner baserunners from scoring.
Mead had two of SEU's five hits in the game.
Similarly, Southeastern didn't get on the scoreboard until the fourth against Coastal Georgia despite having two in scoring position in the prior inning.
Ashley Ellison led off the fourth with a single to left and scored on an
Alex Hilton single through the left side of the infield. The Fire loaded the bases later that inning after Mead was intentionally walked but a strikeout ended the threat.
The Fire had another chance in the fifth with two on and two out, but a ground ball to the third baseman ended the inning.
Coastal Georgia had its best chance in the sixth with a leadoff double and moved the runner to third with a bunt. A walk made it first and third with one out, but a ground ball to Mead led to a double play with Mead tagging the runner going to second then flipping to first to retire the side.
A two-out, two-run double to the warning track in left field by
Katie Atkins scored Mead and Sanders to make it 3-0, then an RBI single by
Erica Stahl made it 4-0 heading to the seventh.
The Mariners hit back-to-back two-out RBI singles to put the tying run at first, but Sekinger got the final hitter to strikeout to end the game.
Sekinger went the distance with eight strikeouts. She allowed two earned runs on nine hits and walked three.
Ellison was 3-for-4 in the game with
Chapel Cunningham and Mead adding two hits each.
Harrell got the Fire a 1-0 lead in the first with an RBI double to score Sanders. In the second, Mead drove in two with a bases-loaded single up the middle, and Harrell hammered a ball off the left field wall to score two more and put SEU up 5-0.
Cunningham made it 6-0 with an RBI single to left.
Katie Atkins scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-0 and a two-run single to left by
Alex Hilton capped off the eight-run inning.
The Night Hawks got on the board in the bottom of the second with a solo homer to center field, then scored on an error with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.
Sanders finished the game 3-for-5. Mead, Harrell, Cunningham, and Hilton had two hits each.
Southeastern will take on Webber International in the final with the game starting at 12 p.m. The Fire will need to beat the Warriors twice to win the title.
