Florida State defeated St. John’s, 7-2, on Sunday in Tallahassee, Fla.
If not for two innings, St. John’s would have had more of a fighting chance. The first and fourth innings proved to be its downfall as St. John’s fell behind early and couldn’t recover.
Florida State posted two and five runs in the first and fourth innings, respectively, on its way to victory. The Seminoles (18-9) scored in the first by way of a Lisa Geer wild pitch and a walk with the bases loaded.
Geer took the loss and fell to 2-4 while throwing for 3.1 innings and allowing all seven of the Seminoles runs. St. John’s (10-10) could only muster three hits through the first six innings as Florida State’s Kayla Collins held the bats in check.
The Seminole bats came back alive in the top of the fourth as a Yuruby Alicart home run scored two and capped the five-run inning. St. John’s attempted a rally in the seventh, but two runs, capped by a Megan Oliver single to left that scored Jessica Marical, weren’t enough to overcome the deficit.
St. John’s 2, North Florida
Kimberly Lerch threw a complete-game four-hitter to help St. John’s defeat North Florida 3-0 and advance to the final round of the Silver bracket.
Lerch improved to 4-3 on the year and struck out eight as St. John’s dropped North Florida to 15-12.
Tami Hill started the scoring in the top of the second inning on a single that drove in Jessica Marical and staked Lerch to an early one-run lead.
Marical then followed up her run in the second with her first career home run in the fourth that quickly doubled the team’s lead.
Loren Anguiano finished the scoring in the top of the seventh with a single that scored Danielle Estrada to give the Red Storm a comfortable three-run lead. Lerch then got two pop-ups and a strikeout to close the door.
Megan Oliver, Lauren Lupinetti and Kim Lerch were named to the Big East’s weekly honor roll.
This is Lupinetti’s second mention in the first four weeks of the season and the fourth consecutive week a St. John’s softball player has been recognized by the conference.
