DeLand, Fla. ? Junior pitcher Nicole Peltz (Navarre, Fla.) earned her first career win and her first career save in the same night as the Stetson softball team (16-13) swept a doubleheader from visiting Houston Baptist (11-11) by 5-0 and 2-0 scores Thursday evening at Patricia Wilson Field. The Hatters have won three straight and nine of their last 10 games.
Stetson scored all the runs it would need in the first game in the first two innings. Junior center fielder Amy Joyce (Lake Mary, Fla.) led off the game with the first of her three walks and eventually scored on an RBI single by junior designated player Amanda Lindsey (Byhalia, Miss.). Another run came in on an RBI groundout from redshirt freshman third baseman Carolyn Boyd (Germantown, Tenn.) to make it 2-0 after one.
With two out and nobody on in the bottom of the second, Joyce walked and stole second, putting her into position to score on an RBI single off the bat of senior first baseman Andrea Migliori (Winter Garden, Fla.). The next batter, Lindsey, worked the count full against Huskies pitcher Beth Evans and ultimately smacked a 3-2 pitch out of the park to left center field to make it a 5-0 ballgame. It was Lindsey's third homer of the season; Joyce finished with four stolen bases in the doubleheader.
Those runs were more than enough for the Stetson pitching staff. Senior pitcher Erica Demers (Miami, Fla.) started and allowed just one hit in three shutout innings before giving way to Peltz, who blasted through HBU's lineup for four shutout innings of two-hit ball, fanning five in the process to earn her first win in a Hatter uniform. Demers had two strikeouts. Evans took the loss with six innings pitched, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits and three walks with six strikeouts. HBU did not advance a runner past second base. Lindsey led the Hatter offense, going three for four with three RBI and a run scored.
Demers got the best of HBU pitcher Jammie Weidert in a tense pitcher's duel in the nightcap, tossing six shutout innings, striking out three and allowing just two hits and two walks. After a leadoff walk with a 2-0 lead in the seventh, Head Coach Frank Griffin summoned Peltz back into the game to slam the door. She did so with ease, getting a groundout, a lineout and an emphatic strikeout of designated player Kristi Malpass to end the game.
The game was scoreless in the fifth until Lindsey delivered a two-out double into the right field corner to score Joyce from third base and make it 1-0. Senior left fielder Amanda Bailey (Destin, Fla.) added an insurance run with an RBI single into left center in the bottom of the sixth, scoring freshman right fielder Grace Turner (Fort Myers, Fla.), who had doubled for her first career base hit.
Weidert finished with six strikeouts in six innings, giving up two runs on six hits and three walks. Freshman Danielle Kildow (Navarre, Fla.) got the start behind the plate for the Hatters, appearing in a game for the first time this season. She walked in her only plate appearance.
The Hatters hit the road on Saturday for the first time this year after 29 consecutive home games, visiting Jacksonville for a 1 p.m. doubleheader in their Atlantic Sun Conference opener. A-Sun.TV will broadcast the games with live stats available through www.GoHatters.com. A $9.95 monthly pass to A-Sun.TV will allow fans to watch not only this doubleheader, but upcoming softball trips to Kennesaw State, Mercer, UNF and FGCU as well as Hatter baseball conference road games.
