MELBOURNE, Fla. - On Thursday afternoon, Florida Tech (31-21, 15-14 SSC) split the series doubleheader against the Lynn Fighting Knights (25-24, 13-16 SSC) after it took Game 1 in overpowering fashion, 4-0, and fell in Game 2 by the score of, 9-3.
In the circle, Melanie Murphy (16-9) tallied her 16th victory on the home diamond, where the local lefty amassed eight strikeouts in seven complete innings pitched to record her first no-hitter of the 2018 stand and fourth within the past 10 years. The last time the Panthers had a pitcher throw a no-hitter was in the 2016 season, where former pitching standout Rachel Pence struck out seven hitters in her seven innings of work against Eckerd to guide the Panthers to a 4-0 victory over Eckerd.
With the completion of today's outing, Murphy has broken the 100-mark for strikeouts, as the FIT ace reached a total of 104 this season. After slipping into second on the SSC leaderboard for ERA during the previous week's series against the Tritons, the Melbourne native has returned to the top of the leaderboard with a cumulative 0.99 ERA in 184 innings pitched. Additionally, Murphy now leads the conference for opposing batting average, as she has held her opponents to a mere .184 to date.
Offensively, Makayla Wessel led the Panther lineup with a .667 batting average, as the freshman out of Virginia Beach collected four hits on six appearances in the box. Closely following behind, sophomore Rachel Kraak went 3-for-6 at the plate for a cumulative .500 batting average with one RBI, while senior Makayla Palmer tallied a team-best four RBI. Aiding to the Florida Tech total, Vanessa Rubio, Alexus Smith, and Jessica Callahan recorded one RBI each.
In the Game 1, the Panthers set the tone for Lynn in the bottom of the first, where Xiarysse Emerenciana singled to third and worked her way around the bases to put herself in scoring position. Emerenciania then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Callahan to give the Panthers a 1-0 edge.
After a scoreless second, the Crimson and Gray offense burst again in the bottom of the third with a 4-0 lead, which came due to a combined offensive effort from Emerenciana, Wessel, Palmer, Rubio, and Smith.
Down by four, the Lynn offense continued to struggle at the plate for the remainder of the game and could not find a way to penetrate the Panthers impeccable defense, which was fronted by yet another outstanding pitching performance by Murphy. Florida Tech wrapped up Game 1, 4-0 to record its 16th shutout of the year and Murphy's seventh.
Forwarding to Game 2, the SSC squads struggled to reach base and remained with a blank score for three straight innings. As the fourth came around, the Fighting Knights broke through the score and pushed across two runs to take the lead, 2-0.
However, the Panthers roared back in the bottom half of the inning, where a sac-fly by Smith shortened the deficit for FIT, 2-1. In the top of the fifth, Lynn struck once again with three runs to move past Florida Tech, 5-1.
Managing to maintain its offensive rhythm, the Crimson and Gray scored two more runs in the home offensive half of the fifth, where Palmer flared a single to center field to shorten the deficit, 5-3.
In the top of the seventh, however, the Fighting Knights put the game out of reach for Florida Tech, posting four more runs and ceasing the Melbourne lineup in the bottom half of the inning to wrap up the win, 9-3.
Tomorrow, the Panthers will conclude the series against Lynn with its last home game of the 2018 season. First pitch is set for 12 p.m. ET. Prior to the game, Florida Tech will honor its 2018 senior class.
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