JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville State softball team scored three in the fifth and four in the sixth to defeat Virginia Tech 8-5 in the final game of the North Florida Tournament on Sunday.
Freshman
Jordan Bullock and junior
Ella Denes each went 2-for-4 with two RBI, while senior
Savannah Sloan drove in two runs on her 2-for-3 day for the Gamecocks (6-4). The loss was the first of the year for the Hokies (9-1), and the eight runs matched the total amount they'd allowed in four previous games in the tournament.
JSU scored first on an RBI single by Sloan in the second inning, but Breanna Davenport tied it right back at 1-1 in the bottom of the inning with a run-scoring single for VT.
Junior
Cadi Oliver put JSU back on top in the fifth, when her RBI double followed a walk to
Sara Borders and made it a 2-1 game. Denes seemed to break it open with a two-run homer in the next at bat, but the Hokies had another answer.
They scored four runs on three hits and a JSU error in the bottom of the fifth, with the big blow being a two-run single by Elizabeth Birle that gave Virginia Tech a 5-4 lead.
It was JSU's turn to answer in the top of the sixth, an inning that started with a Hokie error that put
Stephanie Lewis on to lead things off. Sloan followed with a double that tied the game and scored with
Emily Woodruff on Bullock's go-ahead double that made it a 7-5 Gamecock advantage. Oliver's two-out single scored Bullock and gave JSU its deciding 8-5 advantage.
Freshman
Whitney Gillespie (2-1) secured the win for the Gamecocks, holding the Hokies to just two hits over 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. Sophomore
Taylor West started and pitched the first inning before allowing a run in the second. Sophomore
Logan Green gave up four runs on five hits in 3.1 innings.
Kelly Heinz tossed the first 5.1 innings for the Hokies and limited JSU to a run on four hits. Maggie Tyler (4-1) gave up seven runs on six hits and a walk in 1.2 innings of relief.
JSU will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Woo Pig Classic at Arkansas next weekend. The Gamecocks open play Friday at 10 a.m. CT against Northern Colorado and will then play host Arkansas at 3 p.m.
