Box Score FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
– The Nova Southeastern University softball team (6-5) swept their doubleheader Monday at AD Griffin Sports Complex against the Kentucky State Thorobreds (0-5) by the scores of 11-0 and 8-2.
Starting pitchers
Jennie Von Doellen (Sr., Hudson Bay, Canada) and
Carly Comito (Fr. Boca Raton, Fla.) combined for 11 innings of four-hit, one-run softball and had 10 total strikeouts, while
Dakota Villella (Fr., Hollywood, Fla.) and
Samira Tanaka (Sr., Sao Paulo, Brazil) had five hits each and scored seven runs in the two wins.
Gina Bondarenko (Sr., Pembroke Pines) knocked in four runs, scored four times and had two doubles, while
Erika Garcia (Sr., Pembroke Pines) had two doubles and a triple as part of a 3-RBI afternoon.
Game One
The Sharks shut out the Thorobreds 11-0 in the first game of the doubleheader that ended in the fifth inning on a mercy rule.
Von Doellen was spectacular, coming two batters shy of a five-inning perfect game. She retired the first 13 batters before allowing Megan Jaramillo's bloop single that hit the foul line in right field with one out in the fifth.
The Sharks' offense totaled 13 hits, scoring 11 runs in four innings. They scored quickly in the first inning, with the first two batters reaching and the first of four KSU errors of the game plating the first run. Two more came in off of a triple to deep right field by Garcia, giving the Sharks an early 3-0 lead.
With one out in the second inning and one run already in, Bondarenko hit a two-run double to left-center field to extend the Sharks' lead to 6-0. She would then come around to score on a throwing error made by KSU for the team's seventh run.
The Sharks got enough runs for the mercy rule in the third.
Melanie Spicola (Jr., Umatilla, Fla.) knocked in one with a bunt single, with another scoring on the same play as Spicola was caught in an intentional rundown, making it 9-0. They scored twice more in the fourth, on an RBI single by Bondarenko and a run-scoring fielder's choice off the bat of
Krista Colburn (Jr., Meade, Colo.).
Von Doellen (1-2) closed things out to earn her first victory of the season, allowing only the one hit while striking out five Thorobreds. She faced the minimum amount of batters as the game ended on a groundout double play to erase Jaramillo.
Game Two
Six NSU players would notch an RBI to help the Sharks take the 8-2 win in the second game of the doubleheader.
The scoring started in the first inning again for NSU, highlighted by Comito's second home run of the season. After back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Bondarenko and Garcia, Comito came up to the plate and slugged one over the fence in left field to score two, giving the Sharks an early 4-0 lead.
Two more were plated by NSU in the second inning on a Thorobreds' throwing error and a bunt single by
Lorena Spaulding (Jr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.), knocking in Villella.
The Thorobreds would avoid the shutout and get their first run of the day at the top of third. With nobody on base, Kenya Wilcots would come to bat for KSU and homer to left field, cutting the Sharks lead by one at 6-1.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Sharks extended their lead to eight runs as Spicola scored off a single by Tanaka. Tanaka later came in on
Katey Blummer's (Fr., Naples, Fla.) first collegiate hit, a double into the gap and all the way to the wall.
KSU scored one more in the top of the seventh, but the Sharks took the win, 8-2, to go above .500 for the first time this season. Comito (1-0) earned the first win of her NSU career, allowing just three hits and one run in six innings of work.
The Sharks will travel to West Palm Beach in the upcoming weekend to take participate in the Palm Beach Atlantic Tournament in a doubleheader serieseach day on Friday and Saturday. Their first game is at 1 p.m. this Friday, Feb. 21, when they play Merrimack.
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