VALDOSTA, Ga. - The Blazers capped off a successful weekend with a pair of Gulf South Conference softball wins over Lee (8-4, 3-1), which lifted Head Coach
Thomas Macera to a milestone 800th career win as a head coach at the collegiate level.
"I've been blessed with some incredible players through the years that have played hard for me," said Macera after the milestone win in game two of Saturday's doubleheader. "I'm thankful that somehow I've had the opportunity to coach players every year who play hard and work toward the same goals of winning championships. So many of these players throughout the years have shared my passion for this game, and that's been the biggest blessing."
The Blazers scored in each of the first three innings of game one, and the early offensive surge culminated with a five-run third that included four hits and one Lee error. Taylor Hartenbach sparked the half inning with a leadoff single, and Heather Robinson followed two batters later with a ringing RBI double to right field. Cassey Cornelius delivered her second RBI single of the weekend in the next at bat and moved into scoring position on a Lacey Crandall single down the left field line. Logan Hill, Danielle Patterson, and Jessica Mohl added two runs with three consecutive walks, and Hill scored the Blazers final run of the third inning on a wild pitch.
The 7-0 lead served the Blazers well, as Lee chased VSU starter Avery Lamb with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth. Kathryn Carter came on in relief and struck out pinch hitter Maddie Davenport with two aboard to hold Valdosta State's lead at 7-2.
Despite another two-run inning for Lee in the top of the seventh, Carter and Kameron Coggins teamed up in the circle to hold on and help Lamb claim the 8-4 win and improve to 5-1 on the year. Lee's Shonna Penney was tagged with the loss, which dropped her record to 7-9 on the season.
Patterson provided a spark at the number nine spot in game one with a 2-for-2 effort that led to two RBI's. Hartenbach also had multiple hits with a 2-for-3 performance that included a walk.
In game two, Macera was forced to replace Kasie Johnson with Coggins before the conclusion of the top of the opening inning. Coggins entered the game with the Blazers trailing 1-0, and the Flames had the bases loaded with just one out. The Lake Park, Ga. native saved the day by striking out Claudia Jones and forcing Zoe Miller to fly out to left.
After Coggins held Lee to just one first inning run, the Blazers fired back immediately with a leadoff walk by Mohl, who scored all the way from first on a follow-up double off the right center field wall by Brandy Morgan. On the next at bat, Robinson popped up, and Morgan tried to tag up and take third on an aggressive base running play. Miller caught the pop up in shallow right field and threw the ball away in an attempt to cut down Morgan at third. Morgan scored on the play, which gave the Blazers a 2-1 advantage.
Valdosta State added an insurance run in the third when Miller dropped a pop-up off the bat of Brandy Morgan. The dropped ball squirted away from Miller, which allowed Mohl to score from first for the second time in the game and put VSU up 3-1.
The Blazers benefited by multiple eye-popping defensive plays in the game including a 5-6-3 double play in the fifth and a pair of game-saving diving catches by Morgan in left. As a result, Coggins was able to pitch around eight Lee hits to score the win and improve to 2-1 on the season. Despite allowing just three Blazer hits, Lee starter Taylor Beatenbough suffered her second loss of the weekend to fall to 7-8 on the season.
Valdosta State solidified their second-place position in the GSC standings with the Saturday sweep and improved to 29-8 overall, 15-6 in conference play. The Flames, meanwhile, fell to 17-21 overall and dropped to 7-14 in league action.
The Blazers will return to the diamond next Saturday, with a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader against the visiting Montevallo Falcons.
