ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — If Friday is any indication of what this Flagler College softball team is going to represent, it's going to be a fun season.
Trailing in each game of the pair the Saints played in day one of the Old Coast Classic, it only seemed to motivate the home team more. In the first game,
Madelyn Childs connected on a two-run single in the fifth inning to propel the Saints to a 9-7 win over Lenoir-Rhyne University, and then Ari Bosh took a two-out, first-pitch ball up and away for her first collegiate home run and the walk-off, 8-5, victory versus Nova Southeastern University to cap the Saints' sweep.
"I am so proud of this team," Flagler softball coach
Kathryn Grant said. "They play with so much heart and passion. They impress me every time they step on the field!"
The rejuvenated Saints (4-3) are on a two-game winning streak, heading into day two of the home tournament. Flagler is set to face Newberry College (6-0) at 5:30 p.m., before a rematch with Nova Southeastern (4-2) at 8 p.m.
In the two games together, Flagler had 17 hits — six coming versus L-R and 11 in the night cap against the Sharks — as the pitching staff worked together to lock down the circle. In game one,
Rachel Hester (W, 1-0) relieved
Madelyn Wise and earned her first collegiate victory, while
Taylor Scott (W, 1-0) took over in the second game after Wise and Hester allowed a combined three runs — two earned — on 11 hits.
Hester briefly lost the lead against the Bears, but her offense tied it in the fourth and won it in the fifth. Childs scored the game-tying run on
Alyssa Velez reaching on an error, and then the first-year Saint won it with her two-run single as she batted in
Paige Maseda and
Valerie Beltre.
Beltre drew a game-high three walks, while Maseda had two hits and drove in a pair of runs, alike Childs and
Kyleigh Taylor.
Lucy Giebeig had a hit and walk; meanwhile,
Mercedes Salinas had a hit and run scored.
In the night cap, Childs kept her impressive night going with a first-inning home run, which was her first in a Flagler uniform to knot the score at 1-all. Nova Southeastern took the 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning before Flagler exploded with a four-run frame.
Pinch hitter
Alexis Ridgell opened with a single, followed by a Giebeig double, and then Maseda issued another hit to bring in Ridgell. The Sharks changed pitchers, but it didn't matter. Even with two outs and a couple wild pitches, Salinas came up huge with a two-run single to plate Maseda and Beltre and take the two-run lead against Katelyn Ellard.
NSU scored a pair on the reliever Scott; however, the senior locked in and secured key strikeouts and pitches when she needed to the most, while her defense backed her up highlighted by a gun-down by Maseda from left field to third to complete the double play. Then, Bosch did the rest with an absolute no-doubter of a three-run homer run that
Alyssa Velez (walk) and Salinas (single) set up with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Salinas and Bosch each had multi hits and RBI in the final game.
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