NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb softball team split the first two games of a series with Florida Gulf Coast Saturday afternoon, registering a 6-4 win and a 5-16 loss at Draper Diamond.
The pair of results brings Lipscomb to 12-18 overall and 2-3 in the conference, putting them third in the ASUN West Division.
GAME 1 – Lipscomb 6, FGCU 4
Redshirt freshman Laine Barefoot was the first to enter the circle for the Bisons. The Louisburg, North Carolina, native gave up five hits and a walk while collecting one strikeout in her 3.2 innings pitched.
After a hard-fought first few innings, the Eagles were able to get two runs across and that ended Barefoot’s day.
Offensively, the duo of Maci Cunconan and Presley Leebrick stepped up with two RBIs and a double each. Leebrick went 2 for 3 with one run of her own. Cunconan capitalized on the Bisons’ team rally to put up her hit, going 1-3 for the game.
The first three innings were quiet with only two hits by FGCU and none by the Bisons. Both teams played lock-down defense, but neither side was able to capitalize because of good pitching at key points.
The fourth inning blew the door wide open for the Eagles with Cana Davis looking down a four-pitch walk. A sacrifice bunt to move the runner followed by a flyout in foul territory threatened to shut down what seemed to be an explosive Eagles offensive attack.
A scary moment came for Lipscomb fans as FGCU batter Emily Estroff hit a hotshot through the six-hole. The ball slid between outstretched gloves from Kaitlynn Hunt and Amy Vetula, the latter of whom put it all on the line with a dive on her side.
The stands at Draper Diamond went quiet as Vetula was slow to pop back up. The trainer headed out and a frustrated Vetula left the field under her power. The Canton, Georgia-born senior would later return.
Kate Peters came in to pitch during a double switch for the Bisons with Meghan Kline going to third and Kaitlynn Hunt shifting to shortstop. Peters made quick work of the last Eagle in the fourth, only throwing two pitches before a ground out stopped what could have been a much longer inning.
The bottom of the fourth was not what the Bisons wanted going with a leadoff single followed by a strikeout and a double play. This was righted quickly by Peters who put the Eagles away three up three down.
With a reinvigorated team, the dugout came alive. Vetula stepped up to take charge and get the bench rallying behind the nine coming off the field. A walk followed by a no-out fielder’s choice put Kyndall Crawford on first and Elise Shewmaker on second.
Joie Giarrizzo grounded to second and Crawford was caught on the move for the Bisons’ first out. On the next play, Tori Womack pinch hit for Hunt grabbing an RBI single with Shewmaker crossing the plate to put the Bisons on the board.
After senior Jessie Brown loaded the bases, Leebrick hit a two-RBI double into center field. With runners on second and third, Cunconan did not keep them stranded for long on a two-RBI double of her own.
“It feels good,” said Leebrick. “I think it is important to highlight that I would not have the chance to if Meghan [Kline] did not have a really good at-bat before that and walk, and kind of take what [FGCU’s pitchers] were giving her. It gave me a chance to see more pitches on deck and just time it up better. I think that really taking what they were giving us there gave us a better chance.”
The sixth inning flew by with neither team gaining any advantage. In the seventh inning, the Eagles put up two runs with a few hits and a walk, but it was not enough to close the gap to the Bisons, who escaped with a 6-4 win.
“I think we are getting tougher as the year goes on and I think that is a sign of resiliency,” Lipscomb head coach Kristen Ryman said. “In game one we got down early, we fought and fought and fought, and [we] found a way when offensively early in the game it was not working.”
GAME 2 – Lipscomb 5, FGCU 16
Game two opened a bit differently for both teams. The Eagles put up four runs off of Emily Yakubowski, while the Bisons were unable to put up any runs in the first inning.
FGCU started the second inning off hot with a walk followed by three singles that pushed the score to 5-0. In response, Ryman sent in freshman pitcher Makayla Veneziale, who finished off the inning with more stability. Despite her play, the Eagles advanced to 7-0 in in the middle of the second.
The Bisons were able to put up three in the bottom of the second behind two walks, two singles, and a couple of bad throws by the Eagles defense making the score 3-7.
The Bisons defense was unable to hold off another big inning by FGCU with three walks, three singles, a double and a pair of steals putting the Bisons down 13-3. The Bisons tried to rally back, putting two more on the board off of a Kamrie Rich double that was given a ride out to right field.
A quiet fourth inning led to another inning the Eagles put runs on the board with three crossing the plate on two walks, three singles, and a fielder’s choice. With the Bisons down eleven runs, the team still tried to recover to and the game close.
The bottom of the fifth spelled the end of the line for the Bisons, thouh, with only one hit coming for Presley Leebrick in the final offensive push of the night for the home team.
“Game two just got away from us, obviously,” Ryman said. “We hate that, we don’t want that. We found fight and resiliency; now I think we need to find that consistency.”
“I thought offensively we did a lot of good things today,” Ryman said. “I thought any time [FGCU] came at us we responded, I think this team is growing and learning a lot as the year goes on.
“Something we are desperately seeking for out of our pitching staff is just consistency in their approach, mindset, in how they attack hitters, all of it,” Ryman said of a young Bisons team. “I think once we start getting that we will begin to see more consistency out of our whole team.”
The Bisons take on FGCU once more in the weekend series noon Sunday at Draper Diamond.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics