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Box Score 2 SAINT AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The Eckerd softball team took a pair of close victories on Saturday at the Flagler Invitational, besting Newberry (S.C.) and Tuskegee (Ala.) to extend its winning stream to eight games.
The Tritons (8-1-1) opened the day with a 2-1 win over Newberry before grinding out an 8-6 win over Tuskegee in nine innings.
In the opener, all of the scoring occurred in the first inning. The Wolves (8-4) pushed their only run across in the top of the first after back-to-back two-out singles brought in Christina Linton, who led off the game with a walk.
Eckerd answered in the bottom of the frame on a two-run double off the bat of
Rachael Luckett, scoring both
Carrie Shere and
Kaycie Duncan.
Luckett's hit turned out to be all the Tritons needed as
Nikole Van Gennep shut Newberry down for the remaining six innings. The freshman allowed only two hits over those innings and finished the game with five strikeouts.
EC threatened to add to its lead in the second and third innings, but stranded two runners in each inning. The Tritons had six hits in the opener, led by Luckett with two. Shere,
Janna Gaburo,
Brittany Martinez and
Emily Knox each recorded one hit for Eckerd.
In the second game of the day, Eckerd seemed to be in control against Tuskegee after overcoming an early deficit to take a 5-2 lead into the sixth inning. Shere got the Tritons on the board in the third inning with a solo home run, her second of the season, and EC later took the lead with a four-run fifth. Duncan tied the game with a sacrifice fly after Eckerd loaded the bases, followed by another big hit from Luckett in the form of a two-run double.
However, the Tigers tied things up in the sixth after a leadoff walk and an RBI double chased Triton reliever
Grace Willeck, who was making her first appearance of the season. Van Gennep entered in relief and gave up a game-tying two-run home run before getting out of the inning.
After neither team scored in the seventh, the game went into extra innings and the international tie-breaker rule. Both teams moved the runner placed on second to start the inning around to score in the eighth, moving the game into the ninth.
Shere opened the ninth with an RBI double to score Knox from second.
Chelsea Armstrong moved her to third with a sacrifice bunt, and Duncan brought her in with a single up the middle.
The two runs in the top of the inning were enough for Van Gennep, who got some help from her defense with a 5-3-6 double play to erase the runner placed on second. Tuskegee stayed alive as the next two batters reached base to put the winning run at the plate, but Eckerd got the final out on a fielder's choice to secure the win.
Luckett followed her game one performance with three more hits while Shere had two. Van Gennep (5-1) earned the win in both games, following her complete-game performance in the opener with four innings of relief in game two.
Janna Gaburo tossed 2-1/3 innings as the game two starter while Willeck pitched 2-2/3 innings in relief.
The Tritons play two more games tomorrow at the event, facing Tuskegee again at noon followed by host Flagler at 4:30 PM.
