Following a 2-2 outing at the UCF Spring Fling Tournament, the FGCU softball team defeated Holy Cross, 12-9, and Ball State, 3-1, on Tuesday before defeating Holy Cross, 3-0, on Wednesday to move to 13-9 on the season.
Playing a double header against Holy Cross and Ball State on Tuesday, March 7 the Eagles scored a combined 15 runs behind a five RBI game from Erica Ward in game one and a 2-2 performance at the plate by Morgan Sunderland in game two.
“We had a slugfest in game one and a pitchers duel in the second one,” FGCU head coach David Deiros said to FGCU Athletics in a press release. “It was a really good effort by our kids to go ahead and stay with what we were trying to do. I loved the resilience and I love the effort today, we just have to keep that recipe going every time we step onto the field.”
Propelling the Eagles to their final victory in their midweek matchups, Riley Randolph produced a six strikeout performance in FGCU’s 3-0 victory over the Crusaders.
“Riley threw the ball well and when they put the bat on the ball I thought our defense made some nice plays,” Deiros said. “All-in-all, it was a nice team effort all the way around and we had to try to win in a different way today by using our speed and some movement to try to put the defense out of position. We did a nice job scratching out some runs.”
Scoring 10 runs in the first three innings, the Eagles fought off a comeback from Holy Cross to notch a 12-9 victory over the Crusaders.
Leading the way in the Eagles’ offensive explosion, Ward went 3-4 with a homerun, a triple and five RBIs.
Complementing Ward’s five RBI performance, Raquel Fournet went 3-3 at the plate with three hits and four RBIs.
After a slugfest in game one, the real battle commenced in the pitchers circle, as Randolph propelled FGCU to a 3-1 victory over Ball State.
Pitching seven innings, Randolph allowed four hits, one run and struck out four to secure the Eagles second win of the day.
Leading the charge on offense, Sunderland scored one in her 2-2 performance at the plate to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead in the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth, Bree Tourtillott lined out to left, scoring Bri Innamorato to give FGCU a 3-1 lead they wouldn’t surrender.
Rounding out the Eagles third game in two days, the Eagles scored two of their 3 runs in the second inning to defeat the Crusaders for the second time.
After pitching all seven innings against Ball State, Randolph went all the way again for the Eagles allowing six hits, no runs and six strikeouts.
Now on a three game win streak, FGCU will host No. 1 FSU for a two game series on March 14-15 at the FGCU Softball Complex.
This will be the first time in program history that the Eagles will host the No. 1 nationally ranked team at the FGCU Softball Complex.