LAKELAND, Fla.—Fire softball went 1-1 during the first day of a four-game set against the University of British Columbia to move to 8-4 on the year.
Southeastern got stellar pitching in the first game to take a 4-0 win but were unable to hold on to an early lead in the second game dropping a 5-3 eight-inning contest.
Raylei McKinney got the offense going in the first game with her first collegiate home run in the bottom of the first to give the Fire a 2-0 lead.
That was plenty of support for freshman
Edan Playa who picked up her third win of the season with 5.2 shutout innings with three strikeouts. With two on and two outs in the top of the sixth,
Autumn Hunter came on and picked up a strikeout to retire the side. She also induced a double play in the seventh inning to pick up her second save of the year.
Southeastern added a run in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by
Nicole Wasserstrom, who finished 3-for-3 in the game and made it 4-0 on a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by
Karah Schultz.
An RBI single by
Leah Gonzalez in the first inning and an error in the second inning gave the Fire a 2-0 advantage in the second game of the day. The Fire then stranded four baserunners over the next four innings and struggled to string hits together or take advantage of errors.
The Thunderbirds, however, scored on an error in the fourth and tied the game on a two-out RBI single to right field in the fifth. UBC had a chance to take the lead in the seventh with a leadoff bunt single, but the following batter lined into a double play.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Fire also had a chance with a one out single by McKinney but then also lined into a double play to end the inning.
Despite leading off the eighth with a pop out on a bunt, the Thunderbirds found a way to generate three runs, getting an RBI single, taking advantage of an error, and a sacrifice fly.
Lauren Sekinger got the Fire a run in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly and was followed by singles from
Riley Sanders and Wasserstrom but and infield popout ended the game.
Sanders finished 3-for-4. Gonzalez and Wasserstrom added two hits each.
The two teams will wrap up their series with a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
