Fire Sweep Calumet with Timely Hitting

LAKELAND, Fla.—After a tough stretch of contests in Alabama last week, the Fire softball team responded with a pair of big wins over Calumet College of St. Joseph Wednesday afternoon. Southeastern blanked the Crimson Wave 8-0 in the first matchup before easing their way to a 12-4 victory in game two.
Sophomore Haleigh Harrell’s five-RBI day highlighted the opening contest. The Lakeland native started the game off with a two-run home run to left center, putting SEU up 2-0 in the bottom of the first. In the second, Harrell doubled to left field, which scored Heather Faulk and Natalie Hughes to make it 4-0.
Two batters later, Kristen Schwartz launched her third longball of the year to score Harrell and give the Fire a 6-0 lead just two innings in.
In the circle, Hannah Bodenhorn dominated Crimson Wave batters. The senior struck out 12 through five innings of work, including eight consecutive punchouts spanning from the first to the fourth innings.
After a couple of scoreless frames, the Harrell came through once again in the fifth, doubling down the left field line and scoring Faulk for the third time in the competition. Bailee Moll then singled in Harrell from second to clinch the 8-0 win. Both Moll and Harrell ended game one 3-for-4, while Faulk notched two hits in two official at-bats.
Bodenhorn improved to 5-4 on the year with the impressive shutout performance.
In game two, SEU fell behind 2-0 in the first, but answered with seven straight runs to go up 7-2 on Calumet.
Moll drove in Faulk with a single to left to get the Fire on the board in the first. Schwartz then followed suit to score Moll and knot the contest at two after one.
In the second, Southeastern plated five, three thanks to bases-loaded walks before Schwartz registered a 2-RBI hit to cap off the inning with the Fire up 7-2.
CCSJ then responded twice, but Harrell restored SEU’s five run advantage each time. After Calumet made it 7-3 in the third, Harrell brought in Faulk. Hannah Bonner then came around to score on Harrell’s double in the fifth which made it 9-4. Moll then singled in the sophomore to make it 10-4 SEU through five.
In the sixth, Bonner collected her second hit of the contest which scored Jaz Szierer. Fittingly, Harrell, who holds the single-season record for hits (84), brought the competition to a close with her fourth hit of the game, scoring Bonner and giving the Fire a 12-4 victory.
Harrell (4-5), Moll (2-3) and Schwartz (2-3) each had a trio of Southeastern’s 12 RBIs, while Bonner scored three times.
Cheyenne Benson-Ross moved to 4-1 in the circle on the year after striking out seven through five innings pitched.
“Today was a good day overall coming off of a tough week in Mobile. The girls made adjustments at the plate and came up with some key runs in a couple of big wins for us,” SEU head coach Rocky Stinson said of his team’s performance.
With the two wins, the Fire now sit at 13-8 on the season heading into Sun Conference play. SEU will host Webber in a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 p.m.