April 21, 2008

SAVANNAH, Ga.  - Warner Southern College swept a Florida Sun Conference softball doubleheader from the Savannah College of Art and Design Friday (April 18) afternoon at the Paulson Softball Complex with a pair of one-run victories - 2-1 and 8-7.

The 25th-ranked Royals, who snapped a 12-game losing streak to SCAD, improved to 29-8 overall and moved into first place in the Florida Sun with a 12-2 mark. The sixth-ranked Bees fell to 33-9 overall and to 13-3 in the conference. SCAD returns to action tomorrow (April 19) with a noon doubleheader against Thomas (Ga.) University at Paulson.

In the opener, Warner Southern took a 1-0 lead on a homer to left field by third baseman Jessica Sanchez off SCAD starter Meghan Temple (20-6). The Royals, who were outhit 7-4, added an insurance run - unearned - in the fourth. Staci Fernandez started the inning with a double and moved to second after Jessica Sanchez walked. Fernandez stole third and came around to score when the throw got away from SCAD shortstop Lenka Jaklova.

SCAD got a run back in the bottom of the fifth. Cristina Morgado started the inning with an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dominica Jordan. Morgado came around to score on a single to center field by Jaklova.  The Bees had a chance to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the seventh after Jaklova singled and Kayla Tom doubled to put runners on second and third base with two outs; however, Warner Southern hurler Jerrica Sanchez got Britney Helmers to fly out to end the game.

Warner Southern jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the nightcap as Fernandez connected on a two-run homer to left field in the first. SCAD leveled the game at 2 in the bottom half of the inning on RBI single by Whitney Hess and a run-scoring double by Brittany Kelley. However, the Royals took a 4-2 lead on another two-run blast - this time to right-center - by Fernandez.

The Royals pushed the lead to 7-2 with three more runs in the third inning. Brittany Anderson drove in the first run when her intended sacrifice bunt turned into bunt double when it got through the right side of the infield. Julie Frank drove in another on a grounder that was mishandled and Whitney Carroll added an RBI single.

SCAD rallied to tie the game at 7 as they scored twice in the third and pushed across three runs in the fourth. Kelley accounted for the two runs in the third with her double to left field. The Bees took advantage of two Warner Southern errors to score their fourth-inning runs.

Warner Southern took the lead for good with an unearned run in the fifth. After reliever Kristen Curette (6-2) got the first two outs easily before Jen Steadham took three bases on a dropped pop fly by Jaklova after she collided with left fielder Courtney Mienkina trying to make the final out in the inning. Steadham scored on Fernandez's single to deep short.