The Thomas Night Hawks (19-17, 10-10 Sun) took every shot that the Florida Memorial Lions (10-19, 4-13 Sun) could dish out, but survived the doubleheader Sun Conference match. With the two victories, Thomas draws even with St. Thomas (29-12, 10-6 Sun) in the win column of the Sun Conference standings and to withing one game of Keiser (22-16, 11-7 Sun).
Game One
Florida Memorial jumped out early with three runs in the 1st inning (one unearned), forcing Thomas to play from behind. The Night Hawks would get two of those runs back, powered by an
Averie Shepard triple.
Holly Campbell would drive in Shepard in the next at bat, to bring the score to 3-2.
The two teams would add a run to their total during their next at bats. The Lions Breanna Reyes would score on a McKenna Dawes single.
Addyson Mauldin would score on an
Ava Nunez sacrifice fly, to make the game 4-3 in favor of FMU. Thomas would take its first lead of the day in the 5th inning, when it appeared that the Night Hawks were going to waste a golden opportunity. The first two batters of the inning,
Grace Hodges and Shepard reached base, but had not scored with two outs. Mauldin would single up the middle to finally plate Hodges and Sheppard, to give Thomas a 5-4 lead.
Florida Memorial would fight back in the bottom of the 6th inning with three runs of their own. Thomas was not to be out done.
Briana Boggs would drive in
Adreanna Killingsworth and Campbell. Mauldin would score on a Nunez sacrifice fly.
Elizabeth Soto and Boggs would score on
Kennedy Hardy's single to increase the Night Hawks lead to 10-7.
Florida Memorial would continue to battle in the bottom of the 7th inning, when Aashana Francis would hit an inside-the-park homerun to cut the Night Hawks lead to 10-8.
Dale Elmore would shut the door on the Lions with a strike out and a pop-up to close out the game for Thomas.
Game Two
Florida Memorial would once again open up the scoring, this time in the second inning with two runs. Thomas would score five runs in the top of the 3rd inning. Killingsworth drove home Hodges and Shepard, who led off the inning with hits. Killingsworth would score on
Jaelynn Vialpando's double. Nunez would send Vialpando home, and Nunez would later score on a Lion error to give Thomas a 5-2 advantage.
Shepard (who reached on an error) would score on a Killingsworth double in the 4th inning to increase the Thomas lead by one. In the 5th inning,
Hailie Stewart and
Emma Alley would score on a Campbell single down the right field line. Florida Memorial would draw closer in the bottom of the 5th inning with three runs of their own. Thomas would add an insurance run in the 6th inning when Vialpando scored on an infield single by Stewart, to close the scoring for both the teams.
The final game of the series will occur on Sunday beginning at noon in Miami Gardens, FL.
