The Lady Bisons won their second straight conference series this weekend against North Florida.
Lipscomb won the first game of the double header 8-1, then lost the middle game 5-0, before winning the series finale 2-1 on Saturday.
The first game of the series started out much slower than the score might indicate. After the top of the 4th inning the score was still 0-0. Then in the bottom of the 4th freshman infielder Chloe Yeager got the scoring started by hitting a two-run home run just over the left field wall.
That wasn’t the only long ball hit in the inning as junior infielder Caitlin Plocheck knocked a three-run home run just a few batters later.
“We were doing some decent things early in game one, but we hadn’t quite figured it out yet,” Lipscomb coach Kristin Ryman said. “Chloe hits the home run that just jump-started everything. Our confidence really began flowing after that.”
Unfortunately for the Lady Bisons they were unable to carry their success over to game two of the series as they were shutout by the Ospreys 5-0.
North Florida jumped out and scored four runs in the first inning after just the first seven hitters.
After the first inning senior pitcher McCarley Thomas settled down and allowed just one run over the next six innings, but, with no help from the offense, the damage was already done.
“We have talked to everybody on the team about mentally being able to rebound,” coach Ryman said after the game. “We don’t have time to pout or sulk about how performances went in these games. We have played well lately. We have to get back on track on offense again.”
Game three was the closest game of the series.
The Lady Bisons scored first in the bottom of the 2nd after a wild pitch and an RBI single by junior catcher Abby Fenichel.
North Florida was able to push across one run in the top of 7th but were unable to get the tying.
“I am proud of the adjustments we made,” coach Ryman said. “We had some opportunities to score in the first inning and came up short. In the second we had the opportunity to score more runs but also came up short.
Lipscomb has now moved into a tie for second place in the A-Sun with a 7-3 conference record, while North Florida fell to fourth in the conference with a record of 5-4.
The Lady Bisons have next weekend off from conference play, but will play non-conference games at Louisville on Tuesday at 4 p.m. and at home against UTC on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics