No. 22 Florida State 11, Georgia Southern 2
STATESBORO, Ga. --- The No. 22 Florida State softball team rallied from an early 2-1 hole to score 10 unanswered runs to defeat Georgia Southern 11-2 Tuesday afternoon at Eagle Field.
Game two of the scheduled doubleheader was cancelled due to rain.
”The team that I know we have has not shown it, which is frustrating,” said GSU head coach Natalie Poole. “I definitely think we’re capable of doing much more than what we’re showing. We’re giving up too many hits and too many walks at the plate. We did better defensively, which I’m pleased with. We didn’t have the errors we had (Saturday).”
Florida State grabbed an early lead with a run in the top of the first, taking advantage of two walks. Veronica Wootson and LaShaun Davis both drew free passes and were sacrificed to second. Yuruby Alicart plated Wootson with a groundout.
Georgia Southern responded with two runs in its half of the first. Freshman Nina Iduate (Norcross, Ga.) led off with a single and stole second. Senior Heather Smith (Williamson, Ga.) laced a triple down the left field line to score Iduate and came home on a double by freshman Jenny Side (Loganville, Ga.).
The Seminoles put three runs on the board in the third, receiving RBI singles from Robin Ahrberg and Kayla Collins.
FSU broke the game open with four runs in the fifth. Ahrberg came through with another key hit, a two-RBI single to left.
”If somebody goes out and scores on us first, I definitely want to see our team answer back,” Poole added. “We did that. And if we’re going to rally back and forth, I don’t mind that, but it got out of hand and it got away from us. We shouldn’t have to go through three pitchers in a game when you lose by eight runs. I’m just not happy with that.”
FSU’s Terese Gober improves to 2-0 on the season. She allowed three hits and two earned runs in five innings. Senior A.J. Street (Lilburn, Ga.) drops to 0-2 after giving up four hits and four runs in 2.2 innings of work.
Georgia Southern will host the GSU Invitational this weekend at Eagle Field. Play begins Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.