Stetson Softball earned two come from behind wins on Saturday, Feb. 24 against Long Island and Green Bay. In the game against Long Island the Hatters came back from down 3-1 to win 6-3. Against Green Bay, Lath Freeman's single up the middle gave Stetson the walk-off 4-3 victory. 
 
"I gave Lath the 3-0 green light, and she kind of looked at me a couple times to make sure she had that right," said Head Coach Shellie Cousins.  "She had that mentality and attitude that the bat is in my hands and I'm going to get the job done for the team." 
 
The Hatters took on Long Island in their first game of the day with Hannah Marien in the circle. Both teams were held scoreless through the first two innings. In the bottom of the third, Stetson struck first on a single from Kami Eppley through the right side of the infield. The hit plate Gia Napoli and gave them a 1-0 lead. The Sharks tied the game up at 1 in the top of the fourth. Long Island took a 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth on a two run home run. The Hatters answered in the bottom half of the inning. Napoli reached base due to catcher's interference and promptly stole second. Addison Foster then doubled to left center, scoring Napoli. Madelyn Synoracki then stepped into the box and ripped a 1-0 pitch down the left field line over the head of the left fielder. Synoracki ended up on third and Foster came around the diamond tying the game at three. Eppley tacked on her second RBI of the game as her sacrifice fly brought in Synoracki. Freeman stepped up and placed one down the right field line and recorded her first collegiate triple. The Hatters added one more run in the inning on a wild play where the Sharks recorded two errors. After five innings, Stetson held a 5-3 lead. Addison Foster tallied her first multi-RBI game on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth and Marien held the Sharks in check in their last at bats. The Hatters completed the come from behind, 6-3 victory. 
 
In game two, Lauren Hobbs was in the circle for Stetson. Addison Foster started the home half of the first with a walk and stole second. She then advanced to third on a wild pitch and gave the Hatters the lead on Synoracki's sacrifice fly to center. Stetson added another run in the bottom of the second. Michelle DiPuma walked to start the inning and stole second base. The catcher's throw went a little wild and DiPuma advanced to third. Riley Venn, who made her first collegiate start in this game, was at the plate and drew a walk on a wild pitch that brought DiPuma home. Green Bay was able to plate two runs in the top of the third and another in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead over the Hatters. Stetson wasn't able to put a run on the board again until the sixth. DiPuma hit a rocket into the right second gap for a double and advanced to third on Venn's ground out. Dylan Anthony, who made her first start in this game, hit a ground ball that pulled the third baseman to her left allowing DiPuma to score and tie the game at three. Hobbs made quick work of the Phoenix in the top of the seventh setting Stetson up to end the game in the bottom half of the inning. Synoracki started the inning off with a single up the middle and stole second. Eppley followed suit with a ground ball single up the middle and advanced to second on the throw as Synoracki was held at third. Freeman stepped up and took three straight balls. She then hit the third single of the inning up the middle bringing home the winning run in Synoracki. 
 
"I think these wins today show a lot of character and fight for the girls," stated Coach Cousins. "I think the first game we started out low energy and not really in it. Once the end of the game creeped up on us, we started to fight back and we just kept that energy moving into game two."
 
Both Marien and Hobbs threw complete games in their wins. Marien finished the game with 2 earned runs against and picked up seven strikeouts. Hobbs also allowed two earned runs and struck out three batters. Synoracki had two hits in each game and added 2 RBI's to go with it. 
 
The team will now head down to Tampa for a double header against USF on Wednesday, Feb. 28. The first game will start at 3pm.