WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Slippery Rock University softball team won both of its games on day four of The Spring Games by defeating Lewis University, 2-1, before cruising past Bloomfield College in an 8-0 victory Wednesday in Winter Haven, Florida.
 
The Rock have now won three of their last four games, improving to 5-10 on the year. The games move Lewis to an 11-5 overall record while Bloomfield drops to 3-9 to begin the season.
 
Emma Kennedy went 2-for-5 at the plate. Her two-run RBI-double in game two was just one of her three combined RBI on the day.
 
Julia Montie hit 2-for-4 through the day with a double, while Aubrey Mansfield and Grace Smith both had 2-for-5 showings, each with an RBI. Mansfield also led the team with three runs.
 
Joining Mansfield in the run-scoring were Alexsa Hurd with two and Kennedy, Montie, Smith, Julia Nutter and Samantha Susany each with one.  
 
Arielle Brown registered two RBI for The Rock, while Hurd and Nutter both tacked on one RBI apiece for the day.
 
Kelsi Anderson (2-4) pitched the full seven innings in game one, throwing six strikeouts and allowing just two hits from the opposition. Hurd (2-3) tossed all five innings that were required in the shutout victory over Bloomfield, also striking out six batters and allowing just two hits.
 
The Rock outhit their opponents, 10-4, between the games while recording no errors in either contest.
 
GAME ONE – Slippery Rock 2, Lewis 1
Two runs in the first two innings and four hits through the first three innings proved to be all that Slippery Rock needed in a 2-1 win over Lewis.
 
After a passed ball moved Mansfield to third base in the first inning, an RBI-single from Kennedy with two outs on the board gave The Rock an early 1-0 lead. The Flyers answered with a hit of their own in the bottom portion of the inning but ended up leaving two runners on when nobody scored.
 
SRU took advantage of that opportunity by doubling the score to 2-0 in the second inning when Hurd scored on an RBI-error that put Brown on base.
 
The Flyers could not get another hit off Anderson, who pitched the full seven innings, until the bottom of the sixth when Jalyn Powell gave Lewis its lone run of the day with an RBI-single. That hit ended up being just the second and final hit that the Flyers produced in the game.
 
Anderson struck out two batters in the bottom of the seventh before the final batter flew out to center field, clinching a 2-1 win for The Rock. In total, Anderson threw six strikeouts and allowed just one earned run and two hits while facing 26 batters.
 
Slippery Rock's two RBI came from Brown and Kennedy, while Montie went 1-for-3 at the plate with the game's only double. Hurd and Smith also each gave SRU a hit in the winning effort. The Rock concluded the game with a 4-2 advantage in hits. Lewis committed the lone error of the contest.
 
With her 31^st career win, Anderson moved into sole possession of second all-time in Slippery Rock history, just two wins shy of matching Brooke Dawson's school record of 33 (2015-18).
 
GAME TWO – Slippery Rock 8, Bloomfield 0 (5 innings)
A six-run first inning kickstarted Slippery Rock's momentum on the way to an 8-0 win over Bloomfield, SRU's first shutout victory of the year.
 
The half-dozen runs were produced from just two hits combined with a pair of errors in the bottom of the first inning, beginning with a two-run RBI-double by Kennedy that gave SRU a 2-0 edge.
 
Smith came home as Hurd reached on an error for a 3-0 lead before she scored along with Kennedy via another error that gave Slippery Rock a 5-0 cushion with just one out.
 
An RBI-single by Brown in her second at-bat brought Nutter across the plate for the sixth run in SRU's highest-scoring inning of the season.
 
Bloomfield could not get a hit off Hurd until the top of the fourth inning when a pair of singles gave the Bears a blip of hope that ended when Brown recorded an unassisted out at shortstop to conclude the frame.
 
Slippery Rock's response in the bottom of the fourth inning was in a Smith RBI-single that increased the lead to 7-0 by carrying Mansfield across the plate for her third time of the day.
 
After the Bears were unable to get another runner on base, Slippery Rock needed just one run in the bottom of the fifth to wrap up the game. Susany, one of the two batters to be walked in the inning, was the baserunner to safeguard the 8-0 win across the plate when Mansfield delivered an RBI-single.
 
Mansfield led SRU offensively going 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Kennedy, who accompanied Smith in a 1-for-3 effort, logged the game's only double. Brown (1-for-2) and Montie (1-for-1) each gave SRU a hit in a game in which Slippery Rock came away with a 6-2 advantage in hits.
 
Hurd posted the fourth shutout victory of her career, fanning six batters and allowing only two hits in five innings.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Slippery Rock will compete in its penultimate day in Florida tomorrow with a 10 a.m. meeting with the University of New Haven and a 3:15 p.m. matchup with American International College at the DiamondPlex.




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