GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For the third time in the last four games, the Seminoles have triumphed over the Gators as No. 3 Florida State (36-3) earned a 2-0 win on the road over No. 8 Florida (29-9) in front of 2,403 fans at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
Meghan King tossed a complete-game shutout and improved to 19-1 on the season, scattering six hits and recording eight strikeouts without allowing a walk. The redshirt senior has not allowed a run in her last 33.2 innings over her last eight appearances, dating back to March 15 against Notre Dame.
“Meghan pitched a great game for us today, there were a lot of quality team at-bats and it was just a well-played softball game,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “It was a great atmosphere and I am really proud of how the kids played tonight. We’ll go home and learn some things from the one and move forward for Louisville this weekend. Nice team win for us tonight.”
For the 28th time this season, Florida State scored a run in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead. Cali Harrod opened the game with a four-pitch walk, stole second and moved to third on an infield single by Sydney Sherrill. Elizabeth Mason drove in her 43rd RBI of the season with a sacrifice fly to left field to put the Noles on the board.
King opened the bottom of the first with a pair of strikeouts, but Florida managed back-to-back singles from Amanda Lorenz and Kendyl Lindaman to put runners on the corners with two outs. The redshirt senior pitcher got out of the inning with another strikeout.
The Seminoles threatened in the top of the second inning as FSU loaded the bases on a trio of walks by Zoe Casas, Leslie Farris and Harrod, but a pop out ended the inning.
Makinzy Herzog added another run in the top of the fourth inning with a solo home run to right field, her second HR of the season, to make it 2-0 FSU.
Florida didn’t get another base runner past first base until the bottom of the sixth inning on a one-out double by Lindaman. King retired the next two batters on a strikeout and a pop out to end the inning.
The Seminoles will travel to Louisville this weekend for a three-game series on April 6-8. The Saturday and Sunday games will begin at 1:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra. Monday’s 7:00 p.m. game will air nationally on ESPNU. Links for the broadcast and live stats will be available on the softball schedule page of Seminoles.com.
Fans can listen to the FSU softball coaching staff, head coach Lonni Alameda and assistant coaches Travis Wilson and Craig Snider, on their weekly podcast: Coaches and Coffee – The FSU Softball Podcast. Each week, the coaches talk about the current state of the Seminole softball team, chat about NCAA softball from around the country, and have a lot of fun along the way. The podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or directly at our website – fsusoftballpodcast.wordpress.com.
Throughout 2018-19, the Seminoles will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of women’s intercollegiate athletics at Florida State and there are many events and reunions planned for all women’s sports. Head to www.seminoles.com/50th/ for more information that will be updated throughout the year.
Follow Florida State softball on Twitter (@FSU_Softball) and Instagram (fsusoftball), and like our Facebook page (Facebook.com/FSUsoftball) to keep up to date with everything about Seminole softball.
