Leesburg, Fla. – Including a win in a suspended game against St. Pete College, the Lake-Sumter State College softball team has now won seven in a row with conference play right around the corner.
The February 14 suspended game against the Titans was completed Tuesday afternoon in Clearwater. Starting in the eighth inning, pitcher Allie Geier was able to leave two runners stranded giving her team a great opportunity for the win in the bottom half. Casey Allen reached on a hit by pitch and later came around to score the winning run on a wild pitch. Geier tossed all eight innings of the ball game to get the win.
Lake-Sumter headed to The Spring Games hosted by PFX at NTC in Clermont for their next set of games. North Idaho was the team's first opponent. The Cardinals were up 3-1 after the first inning, but the Lakehawks took the lead with a three run third. A 5-4 ball game heading into the fifth, LSSC was able to bring around three runs to give their pitcher some breathing room with an 8-4 lead. It was Geier again in the circle collecting a complete game win with the 9-4 final score. The lefty allowed just one earned run while striking out one and not allowing any walks. She is now 6-4 on the season. Jenna Curtis collected three hits and scored a run while Taylor Turner, Casey Allen and Alysha Bolling all had two hit performances.
Abbey Primavera took to the circle in the night cap against Mercyhurst Northeast. A two out, two run home run by Casey Allen had her team on the board early. The teams exchanged runs in the third before LSSC brought around two runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Primavera gave up four runs and gave way to Cissy Doolittle, who closed the door in the seventh for the 9-4 win. Nini Underwood, Jennifer Bryant and Curtis all nabbed doubles in the victory while Casey Allen finished with three RBI's.
Lincoln Land CC has been making the trip from Illinois to Florida for the last decade. This season was no different with the two teams meeting up for a double header in Leesburg. It was apparent early on in game one that it was going to be an offensively dominated matchup with the Loggers leading 5-3 after the second inning. The Lakehawks battled back to take an 8-6 lead going into the sixth inning. A seven hit, six run bottom of the sixth led to a 14-6 victory by run rule for Lake-Sumter. Turner continued her hot streak at the plate reaching base all five times she came up. Casey Allen and Amanda Quinby notched three hits each with four runs scored between the two. The team put out 19 hits total while Brandi Davis walked away with the win in the circle.
Game two was a very different atmosphere with the Lakehawks breaking the 0-0 tie in the bottom of the third with a single run crossing home plate. In the fourth inning, Bolling drove a ball into the left field corner for a two run inside-the-park home run to put her team up 4-0. Emily Murphy was toeing the rubber for Lake-Sumter and tossed five strong innings of softball allowing just four hits and one earned run to get the win. Geier came in from the bullpen for the final six outs to secure the 5-2 victory.
Lake-Sumter (15-15) will face off against Palm Beach State College Tuesday in their final action before Conference play begins at the end of the week. Game time is set for 2 pm.