DeLand, Fla. ? Junior first baseman Andrea Migliori (Winter Garden, Fla.) ended a long, tense pitching duel between the Stetson softball team (31-16, 5-4 Atlantic Sun) and visiting Kennesaw State (27-13, 5-5 A-Sun) with an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Hatters beat the Owls 1-0 Monday afternoon at Patricia Wilson Field. Sophomore pitcher Amanda Lindsey (Byhalia, Miss.) tossed a five-hitter for her second consecutive shutout and eighth of the season.
Senior second baseman Nicole Forbes (Tampa, Fla.) drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the ninth against Owls lefthander Brittany Matthews, setting the stage for Migliori to work the count full. She ripped the 3-2 pitch on a line into the left center field gap where center fielder Lyndsay McCurry couldn't quite cut the ball off before it reached the wall. Forbes tore around the bases and slid home well ahead of the throw.
The two-bagger was Migliori's 12th of the season and tied her for ninth on the all-time Stetson single-season list. Migliori also joined former teammate Melissa Wiggins '06 as the only Hatters ever to drive in 50 runs in a season twice.
The win marked Stetson's first sweep of a two-game Atlantic Sun conference series this season and its first two-game sweep of Kennesaw State since the Owls joined the A-Sun in 2005-06.
Lindsey kept Kennesaw State off-balance all game, shutting KSU out on five hits and a walk in nine innings. She struck out seven and turned a key double play to end an Owl scoring threat in the top of the eighth. Forbes finished with two hits for the Hatters, who set a school record today with their 181st and 182nd walks of the season, breaking the record set last year. Senior shortstop Lindsay Wightman (Surrey, B.C.) made Stetson history of her own when she took the field for the 229th time today to set the school record for career games played.
Matthews pitched a terrific ballgame in defeat, striking out 11 Hatters and allowing one run on four hits and two walks in eight-plus innings. McCurry had two base hits for Kennesaw State, which suffered its fourth straight loss to fall to 27-13 on the season and 5-5 in the A-Sun.
The Hatters embark on a six-game, four-day, three-state conference road trip this weekend. Their long journey begins at Cyrill Stadium in Spartanburg, S.C. where they will face the USC Upstate Spartans in a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. Live video is available through A-Sun.TV.
