AUGUSTA, GA – Senior right-hander
Jenna Walling tossed a five-hitter and senior right fielder
Paige Strickland rapped out a pair of run-scoring hits to lead 10th-ranked Francis Marion University to an 8-2 win over Augusta University and to a split of Saturday's (Feb. 7) non-conference softball doubleheader. The Jaguars won the opener 3-2.
Francis Marion (3-1) will play a doubleheader at Coker University on Tuesday at 2 p.m.
FMU gave Walling (2-0) all the support she needed with a seven-run top of the first. Walling allowed just one earned run while striking out eight.
In addition to Strickland, four other Patriots recorded two hits in the second contest: senior left fielder
Anderson Thrower, junior designated player
McKenzie Jewell, senior second baseman
Rylie Webster, and senior catcher
Kendal Miller.
Jewell and Webster staked the Patriots to a 2-0 lead in the first with back-to-back run-scoring singles to left field. Walling helped her own cause when she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a third run. A fourth run scored on a passed ball, before senior shortstop
Madalyn White walked with the bases loaded to make the margin 5-0. Thrower and Strickland completed the scoring with run-scoring singles before FMU was finally retired.
Augusta scored single runs in the second and fifth frames to draw within 7-2, before Strickland lined an RBI-double to right field in the top of the sixth to account for the final tally.
Junior righty Kristyn Ezzo (0-1) was the Jaguars' losing pitcher.
In Saturday's first contest, Augusta took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. The Patriots loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth, but could manage only a sacrifice fly by Jewell to knot the score at 1-1.
The Jaguars responded in the bottom of the fourth with the go-ahead run and upped the margin to 3-1 in the sixth. Webster clouted a leadoff homer in the top of the seventh, but senior right-hander Ansley Gibson (1-0) retired the next three Patriots in order to end the game.
FMU senior southpaw
Alyssa Poston (1-1) was tagged with the loss. She scattered seven hits and fanned three, while not issuing a walk. It was only her ninth loss in 66 career decisions as a Patriot.
A third-inning double by senior center fielder
Mikaela Goss, a fourth-inning single by White, and Webster's long ball were the only Patriot hits in game one.