Seven's heaven
FAU softball's 7-1 win over South Alabama puts the Owls one win away from the Sun Belt Championship game.
Originally published on
5/7/2009
by
Chuck King
No. 7 seeded Florida Atlantic’s offense erupted for seven runs to easily defeat No. 6 seed South Alabama 7-1 on Thursday in Denton, Texas and advance in the Sun Belt Conference softball tournament.
The Owls scored a run in the first and added two more runs in each of the last three innings. FAU will face the winner of Friday’s Western Kentucky vs. South Alabama loser’s bracket game. Since FAU has yet to lose in the tournament the Owls need to win only one of two games to advance to the championship game.
Rose Gressley allowed one run in on six hits to improve to 9-11.
Blair Bodenmiller got the Owls off to a fast start, launching a solo home run in the top of the first to give FAU an early 1-0 lead. The Owls took advantage of second baseman Christin Crocker’s fielding error in the fifth to add two more runs.
Becky Brandies and Kerri Croney smacked back-to-back homers in the sixth to extend the Owls’ lead to 5-0.
The Jaguars mounted their biggest threat in the sixth inning, scoring their lone run and bringing the tying run to the plate with two outs before Gressley struck out Kelsy Donaldson to end the threat.
Gressley helped her own cause in the seventh, singling home Caitlyn Bliss with the Owls final run of the game.
Game Browser: FAU 7, USA 1
Owl-star performance: On the same day she was named a district all-star, making her eligible for the NCAA All-American Team, Blair Bodenmiller went 3-for-3 with home run an three runs scored.
Stat download: 1 – strikeout recorded by FAU pitchers
Up next: The Owls face the winner of the earlier Western Kentucky vs. South Alabama game at 6:30 pm on Friday.