FLORENCE, SC – Junior designated player McKenzie Jewell registered four hits, including a pair home runs, and drove in five runs to power 13th-ranked Francis Marion University to a doubleheader sweep of North Greenville University, Saturday (Apr. 11) in Conference Carolinas softball play.  The Patriots won the opener 13-5 in five innings and the second contest 5-3.
 
Winners of six straight, Francis Marion goes to 37-10 overall and 21-5 in the conference.  The Patriots will play their final regular season twinbill at Ferrum College on Saturday, Apr. 18, at 1 p.m.
 
Prior to the first pitch of the Senior Day doubleheader, Francis Marion recognized 10 players appearing for the final time at home: first baseman Tallulah Civoniceva, second baseman Maddy Golka, shortstop Madalyn White, third baseman Rylie Webster, catcher Kendal Miller, right-handed pitcher Jenna Walling, left-handed pitcher Alyssa Poston, and outfielders Mikaela Goss, Paige Strickland, and Anderson Thrower.
 
In the first game, Walling improved to 24-6 by limiting the Trailblazers to eight hits.  She did not issue a walk and struck out five, and in the process surpassed 500 strikeouts for her career – only the fourth Patriot to reach that mark.
 
At the plate, both Walling and Jewell had two hits and three RBIs.
 
FMU jumped on top early with five runs over the first two innings.  A pair of runs came across in the first frame on a two-out throwing error.  In the second, Thrower slapped a two-run single up the middle.  Walling later plated Thrower with a two-out RBI-double to left field.
 
Jewell launched a two-run homer to straight-away center field in the fourth inning to up the advantage to 7-0.
 
North Greenville rallied with five runs in the top of the fifth to trim the deficit to two runs.  However, Francis Marion responded with six runs in the bottom half to the fifth to invoke the 8-run mercy rule. 
 
Webster led off the deciding frame with a homer to left.  White drove in one run with an infielder grounder, and a second run scored when the ball was misplayed.  Two batters later, Jewell delivered a run-scoring single to right and Walling followed with a walk-off two-run single up the middle.
 
Right-hander Haylee Whitesides (12-6), who had five hits at the plate in the doubleheader, was saddled with the pitching loss.
 
Whitesides, now at third base, homered in the top of the first inning of the second contest.  FMU answered with a pair of two-out runs in the second inning.  Golka walked and came in to score on a triple to center field by Goss.  White plated Goss with a single to center.
 
The Trailblazers (26-18, 17-7) tied the contest in the third, and took a 3-2 lead with an unearned tally in the fifth inning.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, Thrower singled with one out and Jewell blasted a two-run shot off the scoreboard in left field to regain the lead for the Patriots at 4-3.  Jewell has now homered in three consecutive games.
 
Francis Marion added an insurance run on an RBI-ground out from Thrower in the sixth inning.
 
Poston (9-2) recorded the complete-game win by stranding the tying runs on base in the top of the seventh.  She scattered six hits and allowed only one earned run.  She fanned six batters and walked only one, while moving into sole possession of third place on the Patriot career wins list with a 65-10 mark.  She also surpassed 500 career innings as a Patriot.
 
White had three hits at the top of the Patriot line-up, while Thrower, Jewell, and Goss had two hits apiece.
 
Righty Karley Green (11-6) was the losing pitcher.
 
Thrower extended her hitting streak to 11 games and White extended her streak of safely reaching base to 19 contests.  White moved into third place on the career games played list at FMU with her 210th and 211th appearances on Saturday, and into third place on the career list for total bases (346) passing Danielle Karacson.