MELBOURNE, Fla. - Enlarging its win-streak to six consecutive games, Florida Tech (29-18, 13-11 SSC) collected its second sweep of the season after beating conference foe Florida Southern (23-18, SSC 10-17) with a twin bill shutout on Saturday afternoon at the Nancy Bottge Field. During the afternoon outing, the Panthers topped the Mocs 3-0 in Game 1 and recorded a 4-0 victory in Game 2.

This is the second time that Florida Tech has recorded back-to-back sweeps in conference play within the past three years, with the last time happening back in 2016, where the Panthers held an identical sequence of sweeps against SSC rivals Nova Southeastern and Florida Southern.

In the circle, junior Melanie Murphy (15-7) and senior McKenzie Krutsinger (8-7) recorded one win each during today's outings. Staring off in Game 1 for the Panthers, Krutsinger kept the Florida Southern lineup scoreless for 4.1 innings, while Murphy closed the final 2.2 innings to secure the win for her third seasonal save.

During Game 2, Murphy delivered a thrilling performance where she held the Lakeland squad scoreless and amassed three strikeouts in seven complete innings pitched. With today's outing, the Melbourne product reached a new conference-best and season-high 0.98 ERA, while managing to bump up her strikeouts total to 88 over 164.2 innings.

Thanks to this weekend's performance, the Florida Tech pitching staff now holds the ninth spot within the NCAA DII Top-10 Team ERA standings with a cumulative 1.72 ERA.

Bringing the heat into the box, senior Makayla Palmer ended the series doubleheader with a .429 batting average and a team-high .571 slugging percentage, as the Jacksonville native tallied one double and three RBI. Adding to the FIT firepower, sophomore Rachel Kraak blasted a two-run bomb in Game 2, which marked her first of the 2018 campaign. Rounding out the stat leaders with a team-best .500 batting average, junior Xiarysse Emerenciana went 3-for-6 at the plate and now leads the Panthers with a .336 batting average.

During the first match-up, both lineups struggled to reach the scoreboard for two straight innings. However, as the third came around, FIT put runs on the board when Palmer flared a double to deep center for a 2-0 lead.  In the bottom of the fourth, the Panthers offense stayed consistent inside the box, as Mikayla Wessel knocked home Ally Carver on a single to second base, which helped enlarge the FIT stretch, 3-0.

Due to a flawless defensive performance by Florida Tech in the final innings, FSC was unable to overcome the marginal difference and eventually fell to the Panthers, 3-0.

Forwarding to Game 2, the Melbourne squad struck quick and early in the bottom of the second, where Kraak homered behind the left field fence to push home two runs for the Crimson and Gray. After both teams headed through three and four with 1-2-3 frames, Florida Tech managed to break the ice in the bottom of the fifth, tacking on two additional runs to take a 4-0 lead. The scoring sequence started when Wessel reached home on a Mocs muffed throw, which was then followed up with a single to center field by Palmer.

For the remainder of the game, Murphy ceased all possible comeback opportunities for FSC and forced three back-to-back putouts in the final frame to seal the sixth consecutive win for FIT, 4-0.

Up next, Florida Tech will travel to St. Petersburg to face Eckerd for its last conference road series. The first game of the series is slated for Friday, Apr. 21 at 6 p.m. ET.

For more info, please visit FloridaTechSports.com!