May 13, 2006

Box Score

BOCA RATON, FL - Florida Atlantic University saw its first bid for the 2006 Atlantic Sun Conference Softball Championship pushed aside as Stetson scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth in an 11-3 win.

Seven different Owls collected hits in the game with junior Jenna Lopez (Orangeburg, N.Y.) scoring once and recording one RBI. Freshman Kathryn Stauffer (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) suffered the loss, falling to 10-14 after surrendering five runs on five hits in 2 1/3 innings.

Stetson totaled 13 hits in the game, with three apiece to Melissa Wiggins, Andrea Migliori and Carolina Rojas. Wiggins and Migliori each scored twice, while Rojas had four RBIs.

Lindsay Wightman and Teri Lake contributed three RBIs each, while Wightman also scored twice. Heather Colding (13-7) got the win, going the distance for the Hatters.

Florida Atlantic struck first, with leadoff batter Jessica Sachs (Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.) opening the game with an infield single. The senior, after hustling around an attempted tag at second base, eventually scored on a single off the bat of classmate Danielle Arriaga (Miami, Fla.).

Stetson countered in the second, as Lake drove a pitch over the leftfield wall. Amy Peters, pinch running for Nicole Forbes after Forbes opened the inning with a single, and Wightman, who reached via a walk, also scored on the shot.

Junior Shauna Corso (Seal Beach, Calif.) reached on a one-out single in the third for Florida Atlantic and came home on a Mandie Fishback (Banks, Ore.) double, leaving the Owls down 3-2. Stetson loaded the bases with consecutive one-out singles by Wiggins and Migliori and a walk to Wightman in the bottom of the inning and then scored two runs on a Carolina Rojas single.

Rightfielder Amy Bukovich (Boca Raton, Fla.) ended another Stetson threat in the fourth, fielding a fly for the second out and throwing out Shawna Wiggs as she attempted to advance to third base. Lopez cut the Florida Atlantic deficit to two with a solo home run, the third of her career, in the top of the fifth.

Migliori and Rojas hooked up again in the fifth for the Hatters, with singles sandwiched around a strikeout and Wightman walk leading to another run. Stetson closed the game with its outburst in the sixth.