Lakeland, Fla. (April 5, 2007) – Heather Stroud (Jr., San Antonio, Fla.) changed the Saint Leo-Florida Southern softball series with one swing of her bat. Then the rain came, sending both teams home early and forcing the second game of the scheduled doubleheader to be postponed until Friday. Saint Leo left with a win, however, as Stroud hit a two-run homer with two out in the top of the seventh to give the Lions a 2-1 victory.
The 14th-ranked Moccasins (35-10, 8-3) held a 1-0 lead going into the seventh inning behind freshman Heidi Schumacher, who to that point had allowed just three hits in the game. Christina Van Tassel (Sr., Valparaiso, Fla.), who had one of the earlier hits, started the seventh with a single to left, and Ally Maddox (So., Brandon, Fla.) bunted her into scoring position. Two batters later, Stroud launched a 1-1 pitch to deep left field for her first home run of the season, giving Saint Leo (27-15, 9-5) the lead.
It was Stroud’s second extra base hit of the night after she had doubled in the fifth inning. Van Tassel also had two hits for Saint Leo.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Moccasins got a two-out walk from Ashley Alpizar and a base hit from Jesse Shepherd to give themselves a chance, but Saint Leo pitcher Ashley Urbanik (So., Riverview, Fla.) got Sarah Kohlbrenner on a foul pop-up to end the game.
One night after allowing a career-high 12 hits to the Moccasins, Urbanik held them to only four, though she also walked four. Florida Southern had base runners in all but the first inning, but stranded eight of them. Urbanik also struck out four batters in improving to 18-8. That includes a 12-2 mark in her last 14 decisions.
Florida Southern scored its only run in the bottom of the third, which started with a one-out walk by Alpizar. A sacrifice bunt by Shepherd moved her to second, where she scored on a single by Kohlbrenner.
Schumacher took the loss for Florida Southern, snapping a personal six-game winning streak. She allowed only five hits in the game, struck out five and walked one in falling to 14-5.
Jackie Leppla had two of Florida Southern's four hits, making her nine-for-16 in the last six games.
The teams will conclude their three-game series at Barnett Field beginning at noon on Friday.
