DeLand, Fla. ? The Stetson Spring Classic concluded Sunday at Patricia Wilson Field as the Hatter softball team (23-10) beat Cornell 5-3 before dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker to Iowa. The Hawkeyes won the tournament with a 4-1 record.
Against Cornell, it was the Big Red that struck first with first baseman Ashley Garvey's RBI double putting the visitors ahead 1-0 in the first inning. Cornell extended its lead to 3-0 in the third when second baseman Alyson Intihar smacked an RBI double and Garvey followed one batter later with another RBI single.
With two out and nobody on in the bottom of the third, Stetson set to work on a rally. Senior center fielder Amy Peters (Niceville, Fla.) broke up starter Elizabeth Dalrymple's perfect game with a walk and soon raced around the bases to score on senior third baseman Lindsay Wightman's (Surrey, B.C.) double to the base of the wall in left center. Junior first baseman Andrea Migliori (Winter Garden, Fla.) then stepped to the plate and mashed a 1-2 pitch from Dalrymple deep over the left field fence to tie the game at three. It was Migliori's 11th home run of the season and brought her within five longballs of tying her own single-season record.
Three straight hits with one out in the fourth brought home the go-ahead runs. Junior left fielder Amanda Bailey (Destin, Fla.) doubled for the fourth time this season and senior second baseman Nicole Forbes (Tampa, Fla.) singled to put runners on the corners for freshman right fielder Rachel Lowe (Okeechobee, Fla.) Lowe came up with the biggest hit of her college career to date, a hard-hit double to right center that scored both runners and gave the Hatters the lead for good, 5-3.
Starter Erica Demers (Miami, Fla.), who had given up three runs on six hits in four innings, was relieved to start the fifth inning by sophomore Amanda Lindsey (Byhalia, Miss.). She shut the Big Red out on three hits with three strikeouts in the final three innings to earn her first save of the season.
Bailey and Forbes had two hits apiece for the Hatters while Intihar and right fielder Ashley Wolf joined Garvey in the two-hit club for Cornell. The Big Red became the first team to score three runs on Stetson since Maine did it Feb. 29, 12 games previous.
The Hatters scored first in the nightcap against Iowa on another RBI double by Lowe, this one over the head of right fielder Taylor Leichsenring in the second inning.
Lindsey seemed poised to make that single run stand up all night, not letting an Iowa runner to third base until the two-out mark of the fifth inning. It was at that point, however, that disaster struck the Hatters in the form of a wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score; a second run came home on the play when the throw back to the plate went awry.
Iowa pitcher Amanda Zust slammed the door on Stetson from there, retiring the last six batters in order to preserve the 2-1 win for the Hawkeyes. She gave up just three hits all night, walked none and struck out four. Lindsey recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in defeat and surrendered no earned runs. Lindsey has given up just two earned runs in her last 11 appearances. Forbes singled and scored to extend her hitting streak to six games.
Stetson's final tournament of the year is the one-day Hatter Roundup on Tuesday at Patricia Wilson Field against Iowa and Tulsa. The Hatters face Iowa at 5 p.m. and Tulsa at 7 p.m. with the Hawkeyes and Golden Hurricane matching up at 3 p.m. in the opener.
Jamie Bataille and Hatter Vision will broadcast all the action on the official online home of Stetson Athletics, www.gohatters.com. Live stats will also be available for all games.
