CLEARWATER, Fl. — Led by Cassidy Davis, who went 3-for-4 from the plate with a double, a home run and three RBI, No. 5 Florida State (7-3) posted a 7-1 victory over Liberty (1-9) on Sunday afternoon at the 2020 St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational.
“Nice win today and glad of how we bounced back from Friday and Saturday,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “Caylan pitched a great game for us and our defense played outstanding behind her as well. Cass Davis was swinging it well today and helped sparked the offense. Pleased with the win and looking forward to another challenge tonight against UCLA.”
Florida State jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning as Davis hit her third home run of the season to right, scoring Sydney Sherrill who reached on a walk. Dani Morgan followed with a bunt single, stole second and a fielding error off the bat of Devyn Flaherty put runners on the corners with two outs. Flaherty stole second and Morgan Noah brought in a run with an infield single. Noah stole second, and Liberty tried to pickoff Flaherty at third, but the throw went into left field which allowed Flaherty to score. Josie Muffley drew a walk and stole second, but ended up being left on base.
Liberty had a leadoff double in the top of the second, but a line drive to Noah started a 4-6 double play. The Flames got runners to second and third after a single, an FSU error and a wild pitch, but a pop out to second kept Liberty off the board.
Kiersten Landers led off the FSU second inning with a triple to left field and scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Sherrill as the throw home was not in time, extending the FSU lead to 5-0.
The Flames got a run back in the top of the fourth, as Emily Sweat hit a solo home run to center to cut the FSU lead to 5-1.
Florida State added two more in the bottom of the fourth inning as Sherrill began the frame with a single to center. Chloe Culp followed with a walk and Davis drove in a run with an RBI single to center. A wild pitch moved both runners to second and third, while a sacrifice fly from Morgan brought in another run to make it 7-1 Noles.
Caylan Arnold (2-1) tossed a complete-game victory, allowing just one run on five hits with zero walks and two strikeouts.
The Seminoles will close out the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational tonight at 7:00 p.m. against No. 2 UCLA (9-0). The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 and links for the broadcast and live stats will be available on the softball schedule page of Seminoles.com.
