LAKELAND, Fla.— Southeastern’s softball team cruised past Trinity Baptist in both games of their doubleheader on Saturday, winning 8-0 and 11-0 respectively.
A phenomenal pitching performance by Hannah Bodenhorn highlighted the first game of the twin-bill. The junior from Nashville, Tennessee retired the first eight batters she faced, including a string of six consecutive strikeouts spanning from the first through third innings.
The Fire capitalized on two errors by the Eagles in the first, jumping out to a 2-0 advantage early in the contest and giving Bodenhorn all the offensive help she would need.
Southeastern would cushion its lead with a four-run third inning. After the Eagles walked in a run with the bases loaded, Sam Holcomb doubled in two runs, while Haliegh Harrell scored Heather Faulk on a sac fly to make it 7-0 SEU.
Junior Natalie Hughes doubled in Lauren Watters to give the Fire an 8-0 advantage heading into the fifth.
In the top of the fifth, Bodenhorn, who leads the Sun Conference in strikeouts per nine innings, finished off the opening competition by striking out the side for the second time in the game. She ended the contest with ten strikeouts in just 16 batters faced and did not allow a single hit.
Game two featured an offensive explosion, as the best home run hitting team in the country kept pace with the mark they’ve set through four games.
Though Southeastern only led by a single run through two innings, the Fire would open up the game by scoring ten runs over the next two innings of play.
Harrell started off a six-run third inning by doubling in Holcomb and Faulk. The Lakeland native would come around to score after being walked in, as the score quickly became 4-0.
Aggressive yet smart baserunning enabled the Fire to capitalize on the scoreboard even further. Ramsey Sullivan drove in Brandee Pietrzak on a sac fly and Kristin Mihalic singled in Kiah Ferrell to make it 6-0. The Fire ended the half inning with a well-executed double steal as Mihalic distracted the Eagles’ defense while Britney Schmidt stole home.
After combining for three RBIs in the first contest, the top of the lineup in Holcomb and Harrell drove in five of SEU’s 11 runs in the second game of the day.
In the fourth inning, Holcomb launched her second longball of the season beyond the wall in center field to give the Fire a 9-0 advantage.
Harrell, who went a perfect 5-5 with four RBIs over the two matchups, then followed up Holcomb’s blast with a solo shot of her own over the left field fence.
Ashley Appell shut down Trinity Baptist’s hitters by allowing a mere two hits on the day. Appell capped off her impressive performance in the circle by fooling three Eagles’ batters in the top of the fifth. The freshman, who only allowed two baserunners and struck out five, picked up her first collegiate win in the 11-0 victory.
With the pair of shutouts today, Southeastern has now captured its last five opening day games by a combined score of 51-0. Each of the five games have only taken five innings.
The softball team will take the field again when they head to Plant City for the NAIA Weekend Tournament hosted by springbreaksoftball.com. On February 16, Southeastern will battle with Point University at 4:30 p.m. and is scheduled to take on Olivet Nazarene at 6:30 p.m.
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