After a brutal opening weekend in Statesboro, Georgia, which resulted in a four-game losing streak, the softball team added a win to this season’s scoreboard at the Osprey Dolphin Invitational in Jacksonville, Florida, over Valentine’s Day weekend.
The Bucs dominated the three beginning matches cleaning out the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 9-1 and North Florida 10-6 on the first day. One Saturday, the Bucs crushed Alabama A&M again with 5-0 before losing their first in the tournament against Jacksonville University 6-2. The Bucs improve 3-5 in the season and 3-1 in the invitational.
After A&M hit their single run in the match, the tides turned for the Buccaneers. With sophomore Taylor Boling (Jasper, Georgia) at the mound, she struck out a career high of eight Bulldogs and had just two walks. The Blue and Gold did well with their batting as well making six runs on six hits over the last three innings.
The match against the North Florida Ospreys was more of a nail biter than the first. With the three bases filled, junior Makenna Helton (Knoxville, Tennessee) sent the ball to left center and booked it to second, giving the Bucs a 3-0 advantage. North Florida accepted the challenge making a run and scoring another point from an ETSU error. In the seventh inning the Bucs grabbed four points after junior Lauren Lee (Cleveland, Tennessee) sent a triple over the right field and was brought home by an RBI courtesy of senior Kylie Toler (Bradenton, Florida).
The Bucs faced the Bulldogs again on the second day of play defeating them 5-0.
Junior MacKenzie Dyson (Hanahan, South Carolina) pitched a career high of seven innings of work in her third complete game striking out six batters. A&M had runners on second and third before Dyson struck out the batter preventing the Bulldogs from scoring. The rest was a breeze for the Bucs scoring three runs in the bottom of the third. The Bucs are now 5-1 all time against Alabama A&M.
The one blow to the Bucs was delivered by the Dolphins who scored their first five points total throughout the five innings. The Bucs scored their only two runs in the sixth inning followed by Jacksonville scoring the final run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The final match of the invite is Feb. 16 at 11:30 a.m. in Jacksonville, Florida.
