Softball Claims Series Against Southern Miss with Two Wins Saturday

Saturday, March 16

Hattiesburg, Miss.

2 PM

Florida Atlantic

13-12, 0

Southern Miss

14-11, 0

Florida Atlantic

Southern Miss

Softball Claims Series Against Southern Miss with Two Wins Saturday

3/16/2019 7:56:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Game 1
Game 2

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Florida Atlantic University softball team (14-12) claimed their first Conference USA series of the season after capturing two wins over Southern Miss (14-12) on Saturday. FAU halted Southern Miss' eight-game home winning streak in the first game with a 3-1 victory. In the second game, the Owls rallied from a 3-1 deficit to run away with the victory, 5-3. The Owls will look to sweep tomorrow in their first conference series of the season.

Quotable:

"It was a really good start to the conference," said Head Coach Joan Joyce. "Winning two games is always good and we are looking to pick up the third win tomorrow. Those were two really great games. We hit the ball very timely today, our pitchers did very well and we took care of them."

Game 1
Key Plays:
Madisyn Palmer got things started in the top of the first inning by reaching on a walk, and then then stole second and advanced to third on a grounder to Southern Miss' shortstop. On the first pitch, Mia Olson hammered the ball over the fence in left field to score Palmer and elevate the Owls to an early 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Southern Miss' Lacey Sumerlin flied out to left field to score Destini Brown and cut the Owls' lead in half, 2-1. Kaitlyn Burke delivered a double in the top of the seventh inning and Danielle Bieberle came in to pinch run. With Carolyn Rosa at the plate, she captured her third hit of the afternoon to left field to score Bieberle and give the Owls an insurance run. With a 3-1 lead, Olson came into the circle in the bottom of the seventh inning to help the Owls clinch game one of the afternoon.

Notables:

Kelsey Morrison (6-2) pitched six innings without giving up an earned run. She allowed three hits and three walks in her sixth win of the season
Olson came into the circle in the bottom of the seventh, allowing just two hits. She retired her last batter on a strikeout to capture her first save of the season
Olson's two-run home run in the top of the first inning was her fifth of the season
Rosa was a perfect 3-3 at the plate with one of those hits being an RBI single
The Owls captured two stolen bases in the game thanks to Palmer and Ashleigh Jennings
Burke hit her sixth double of the season. She had three career doubles leading up to the 2019 season

Game 2
Key Plays:
Southern Miss got on the board first following a sacrifice fly by Sarah Van Schaik to score Chase Nelson. In the bottom of the third inning, the Golden Eagles tacked on another run following a sacrifice fly by Sumerlin. In the top of the fourth inning, Olson delivered her second home run of the day to cut the Golden Eagles' lead in half, 2-1. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth inning, Brown reached on a walk to extend the Golden Eagles' lead, 3-1. In the top of the sixth inning, Jolie Duffner captured an RBI single and advanced on the throw to score Samantha Lageyre, who had previously reached on a double. Lauren Whitt then knotted the game up after delivering an RBI single to score Olson, who had previously reached on a walk. The Owls were not quite done in the inning, as Rosa reached on an error to send Duffner home and claim the 4-3 lead. FAU extended the lead in the top of the seventh inning following a squeeze bunt by Lageyre to score Palmer. The two-run lead was all the Owls needed to claim the 5-3 victory and their first C-USA series of the season.

Notables:

Skylar Whitty (4-1) pitched her fourth complete game of the season, allowing four hits, two earned runs and added one strikeout
With Olson's two home runs on the day, she has six on the season, which has tied last year's total
Lageyre, Olson, Duffner and Whitt each captured two hits in the contest. Whitt is on a six-game hitting streak
Palmer now has 22 stolen bases on the season after capturing one in each of today's games

Up Next:

The Owls will close out its series against Southern Miss tomorrow at 2 p.m. Live stats are available here and live video can be accessed at cusa.tv. For live coverage during the game and for other FAU softball news, follow along on Twitter (@fauowlssoftball), Instagram (@owls_softball) and Facebook.