Rallies Fall Short as Tritons Drop Two to Barry on Friday

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A pair of seventh-inning rallies came up a little bit short as the Eckerd softball team dropped both ends of a double-header on Friday to Barry, 5-3 and 4-3, in Sunshine State Conference play.

In both games, the Tritons had the winning run in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh inning but couldn't move the runner around to score either time.

Stranded runners haunted Eckerd in general, leaving 15 runners on base in the first game and nine in the second.

Barry (16-13, 10-7 SSC), meanwhile, jumped ahead early in both games scoring twice in the first inning of the opener and three times in the first inning of the nightcap, putting Eckerd in an early hole.

The lead grew to 5-0 in the first game in the fourth inning thanks to a two-out, bases-loaded double by Megan Copeland.

Utilizing outstanding patience at the plate, Eckerd (23-15-1, 7-7 SSC) created scoring chances late in the game to give itself a chance.  The Tritons drew four walks in the sixth, two with the bases loaded, to make it a 5-2 game.  

Then in the seventh, after hits by Chelsea Armstrong and Kaleigh Floyd and walk to Dana Paul, Kaycie Duncan drew her second bases-loaded walk of the game to pull EC within two runs.  However, EC left the bases loaded when Anielise Palmeiro struck out Carrie Shere on a full count to end the game.

After the Bucs jumped out to the quick lead in the second game, Nikole Van Gennep settled down in the circle holding Barry scoreless over the next five innings.  Duncan put the Tritons on the board in the fifth inning with a two-run home run, her fourth of the season, over the right field wall to make it 3-2.

Barry scored what turned out to be an important run in the top of the seventh on back-to-back two-out doubles by Dee Espinosa and Lynsey Duncan.  Eckerd, in turn, threatened with a two-out rally of its own in the bottom half of the inning with consecutive singles by Rachael Luckett and Van Gennep bringing in Floyd, who led off the inning with a walk.

Armstrong appeared to have at least tied the game with a blooper into center field, but Barry's Kayla Ogle made a sliding catch to end the Tritons' rally.

Van Gennep (14-10) took the loss in both games, striking out six in the second game.  Janna Gaburo pitched 3-1/3 innings of scoreless relief in the opener.  Floyd had three hits in the first game of the evening while Van Gennep and Luckett both had two hits in the nightcap.  Eckerd drew a total of 19 walks in the double-header.

The series concludes on Saturday with a single game scheduled for 9:00 AM, changed from the original start time of 1:00 PM due to the threat of inclement weather.