Lakehawks Finish First Half of Conference Play in Third

Leesburg, Fla. – With the first half of Mid-Florida Conference play in the books, the Lake-Sumter State College softball team sits in third place in the standings.

A road sweep of No. 7 in the region, Santa Fe College, set the Lakehawks up for a solid finish to the first go-around of the conference schedule. No. 10 in the country, Central Florida came in and knocked LSSC off in both games of the double header by scores of 11-1 and 3-2. It was the fact that LSSC had won games early on that they remained in the top three of the standings.

With the second round set to begin Thursday with Lake-Sumter hosting Florida State College – Jacksonville, the Lakehawks control their own destiny.

"It's something that we couldn't say in the last couple of years," said Head Coach, Jay Miller. "We sat fifth or sixth in our first two years to begin the second round, but now we are a game up or more on four teams with twelve games left."

The Lakehawks swept FSCJ on the road to start the MFC schedule, winning game one, 3-1 and game two, 11-3. The Blue Wave have bounced back and knocked off No. 13 in the nation, Seminole State on Tuesday. With that upset, LSSC sits three games behind the Raiders for second place in the standings.

Miller went on to say, "We just have to take care of business and worry about us. If we compete to the best of our abilities and get the job done on our end, we will be headed to post season play."

A new format adopted by the MFC will be implemented this year and allows the top four teams to make it to the Conference Tournament. Previously, the top four teams went straight to the State Tournament. Under the new format, only two teams from the conference will move on to the state playoffs. The regular season conference champion will automatically earn a bid to the State Tournament. The No. 4 team will play a one game playoff against No. 3. Finally, No. 3 or 4 will take on No. 2 in a best of three series.

With 12 games remaining, the Lakehawks are 27-20, 6-6. Several milestones have already been hit by the team. Jasmine McQuaig broke the career wins mark with 18, while both Brooke Ferguson and Rachel Phelps broke the single season stolen base record. The team also received 10 votes in the latest regional poll, a season high.

Game one of the double header with FSCJ will begin at 2:30 Friday. Special guest, Leah Bultema will be honored in-between games.

Mid-Florida Conference Standings
Team                        Conf. Record                 Season Record

Central Florida           11-1                             38-8
Seminole State           9-3                              37-8
Lake-Sumter              6-6                              27-20
Santa Fe                    5-7                              25-18-2
Daytona State            5-7                              19-17
FSCJ                          4-8                              13-19
St. John's River          2-10                             24-17