LAKELAND, Fla. - The University of West Alabama Softball team capped off their Florida road trip with a sweep over the Florida College Mocs on Sunday.
UWA (7-4) played near perfect softball against Florida Southern (1-7) as the Tigers recorded nine runs on 14 hits while the combination of Madison Wright, Eleanor De Block, and Megan Roe shut out the Mocs and only allowed seven hits through 14.0 innings of play.
"I am proud of how our team responded this weekend," said head coach Stephanie Defeo. "We had six tough games on the road and battled. We had incredible performances on the mound and defensively."
GAME ONE: West Alabama 2, Florida College 0
Madison Wright got the start in Game One and put on another magnificent performance. Wright began the game, by retiring nine straight Florida College batters before a walk drawn by Keira Morris broke up the perfect game in the fourth inning.
While Wright dazzled on the mound, West Alabama collected a handful of hits off the bats of Marissa Mitchell, Ann Marie Stanbridge, Taylor Clegg, and Trinity Hatcher but couldn't push across a run until the fifth inning.
In the fifth, Ella Watson scored off a Mocs' error to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead with Wright retiring Florida Southern in order in the bottom half.
Up 1-0 in the 6th, UWA got an insurance run off the bat of Clegg who hit her first home run of the season, extending West Alabama's lead to two. A base hit and a walk put Florida Southern in business in the bottom half, forcing Coach Defeo to bring in Megan Roe out of the bullpen. Roe came in and got UWA out of the jam as the Tigers took their 2-0 lead into the final frame.
West Alabama couldn't add on to their lead in the top of the seventh but it wouldn't matter as Roe slammed the door to pick up her first save, securing a 2-0 win.
Clegg and Trinity Hatcher led the way offensively with two hits a piece while Shannon recorded an RBI.
GAME TWO: West Alabama 7, Florida Southern 0
Eleanor De Block received the ball for the Tigers in Game Two, and much like Wright, pitched a gem. De Block has been brilliant the entire weekend and that continued on Sunday as the Junior finished with a pitching line of 5.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 SO, 0 BB.
UWA's offense got going early as Haley Shannon and Mitchell began the game with base hits, bringing Stanbridge to the plate who doubled home Mitchell to put West Alabama ahead 1-0 in the first.
The Tigers added on to their lead in the second inning as Watson scored off a Florida Southern error. Now working with a 2-0 lead, De Block ran into a little bit of trouble in the bottom of the second but worked her way out of a jam to keep the Tigers advantage at two.
De Block continued to neutralize Florida Southern's offense, before receiving more run support in the fourth inning courtesy of Jessica Rose. The true freshman drove in Watson via an RBI-Single before stealing home later in the inning to push UWA's lead out to 4-0.
After two more inning of shutout out ball from De Block, West Alabama builded on their lead in the sixth and the seventh as La'taviona Parke scored on an error before Stanbridge hit her first home run of the year in the seventh. To cap things off, Watson registered a sacrifice fly, scoring Trinity Hatcher, putting the Tigers up, 7-0.
Out of the bullpen, Roe recorded the final three outs as West Alabama secured their sweep over Florida Southern.
Stanbridge led the way offensively with two hits with one being a home run while Rose also finished with two hits and two RBIs.
UWA will be back in action next weekend when they open up conference play against Mississippi College, beginning on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
