WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - On Friday night, Florida Tech (21-15, 5-8 SSC) dropped a 3-0 heartbreaker to No.10 Palm Beach Atlantic (20-2, 13-0 SSC) at Simpson Field. After battling head-to-head for five entire innings, the Sailfish broke through the score in the sixth to capture their 13th conference win.
Although credited with the loss,
Melanie Murphy (9-6) had an outstanding performance inside the circle, as the Melbourne product held the West Palm lineup to solely two hits in the first five innings, and recorded three strikeouts in the night outing. After tonight's game, Murphy still reigns atop the SSC
leaderboard with a 1.30 ERA in 107.1 innings pitched, and has now increased her seasonal strikeouts total to 53.
In the box,
Xiarysse Emerenciana,
Shanysse Emerenciana,
Vanessa Rubio,
Jessica Callahan and
Makayla Palmer all collected one hit apiece for the Panthers. Additionally, the team amassed 18 putouts to increase its fielding percentage to .962 on the year.
Florida Tech started off the game aggressively, as X.
Emerenciana singled to center field to bring FIT on base. The single was then followed by
Mikayla Wessel's fielder's choice that caught
Emerenciana out at second, however,
Wessel quickly stole second and third to place herself in scoring position. From there, the Crimson and Gray lineup struggled to push its runner home and eventually left the frame scoreless, 0-0.
After a blank second and third inning for Florida Tech, the Panthers catcher Palmer breached through the PBA defense with a single to right center in the top of the fourth. However, the Jacksonville native was left hanging at first and the score remained unchanged heading into the bottom half of the inning, 0-0.
Forwarding to the sixth, Palm Beach managed to turn the game around with three hits and three runs to overlap Florida Tech, 3-0.
In the final inning, the Crimson and Gray were unable to place runners on the bags and eventually fell to the
10th ranked Sailfish, 3-0.
The Panthers will return to the diamond of Simpson Field tomorrow for the series doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. ET.
For more info, please access FloridaTechSports.com.
