Box Score ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Florida A&M scored seven runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to hand the Norfolk State softball team a 15-3 loss in five innings on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the MEAC tournament at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.
The Rattlers piled up 13 hits and erased a 3-1 deficit with those two big innings. The loss knocked NSU into the loser's bracket, where the Spartans will next play Morgan State at 4:30 p.m. in an elimination game.
Jessica Nathan hit 3-for-3 with two runs and three RBI for FAMU (24-27), which advanced to face Savannah State later in the day. Denise Anderson drove in three runs, while Whitney Farris hit 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Nine different players had at least one hit, and nine different runners scored at least once for FAMU in the game.
Senior
Heather Dunning hit 2-for-3 with two runs for the Spartans (17-24), while fellow senior
Megan Dunning drove in a pair of runs for the Spartans. The duo combined for all three of NSU's hits in the contest.
Heather Dunning gave NSU an early lead, tripling over a drawn-in right fielder to lead off the bottom of the first and then scoring later on a wild pitch. Nachelle Watson's sac fly for the Rattlers in the top of the second tied the score at 1-1.
In the third,
Heather Dunning singled through the infield, and sophomore
Seana Moriarty reached first when the Rattlers failed to get Dunning out at second on a sac bunt attempt.
Megan Dunning then followed with a double down the left field line to score a pair and give the Spartans a 3-1 lead.
Miesha McBride and Farris hit RBI singles in the fourth to get the Rattlers going, and Nathan's two-run homer later in the inning put FAMU ahead. Another run scored on the second error of the inning for NSU, and Anderson hit an opposite field, two-run homer for an 8-3 lead.
Then in the fifth, FAMU again batted around. Four straight hits and a fielder's choice in which NSU failed to record an out plated the first three runs of the inning. Anderson's RBI groundout and Amber Fullwood's infield single made it 13-3, and another fielder's choice and then an RBI single by Toni Anderson capped the scoring.
Veronica Burse (7-11) got the win in relief for the Rattlers, pitching the last three innings and allowing no hits and no runs while striking out four.
