Southern Miss
Florida State
Softball Team Upsets No. 19 Florida State
2/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 11, 2010
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Junior Jill Mathis' double to left center in the top of the fourth scored Britney Dinelt and Megan Hill to give Southern Miss a 2-1 upset win over No. 19 Florida State in the opening game of the Sunshine State Classic.
This marks the first time a Southern Miss (1-0) team defeated a ranked opponent since 2006 when the Golden Eagles knocked off the No. 7 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.
"Coming into this game we were looking to try get ourselves going and playing against a nationally ranked team right away was big for this team because we wanted to see where this team stacked up," Coach Howard Dobson said. "We weren't worried about beating Florida State or beating whoever, we wanted to come in and compete. That was our biggest deal that no matter who you play, come in step up and compete."
Courtney Ramos (1-0) picked up the complete game win, surrendering one earned run on four hits and striking out three. Hill was 2 for 2 and Mathis was 1 for 2 from the plate.
"I think Courtney Ramos threw an outstanding game today," Dobson said, "She didn't have a whole lot of strikeouts but she made her pitches when she had to, got her ground balls and her defense played great behind her. Logan James made some plays in the 3-4 hole and we had Lauren Castellvi make a diving play on the little blooper which got us out of a big inning. Then we had Mathis making a play and Chanell Thurman making a play after she had a little bobble and came back and responded."
The Seminoles took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Carly Wynn walked then advanced to second on an infield single by Shayla Jackson. Jen Lapicki then singled up the middle to plate Wynn. With runners still in scoring position, Robin Ahrberg hit a hard liner to second for the second out and Ramos got Ashley Stager to ground out to third to get out of the inning.
"We had more strikeouts than what we wanted offensively, but we faced an All-American in Sarah Hamilton," said Dobson. "We made some adjustments and started the see the ball better and put the ball in play more. That was nice to see."
Southern Miss came right back in the top of the fourth when Dinelt drew a walk then advanced to second on a single by Hill. With runners at second and first with only one out, Mathis then stepped up to the plate and delivered a double in the gap to score Dinelt and Hill for the game winner.
Both teams had runners in scoring position in the sixth inning but solid pitching and defense kept the teams from pushing runners across the plate.
FSU's Sarah Hamilton (0-1) took the loss for the Seminoles working 4.0 innings before Teresa Gober came on in the fifth, allowing only one hit while striking out six Golden Eagle batters.
Southern Miss is scheduled to play twice on Friday with the first game set for a 2:45 p.m. start against Mercer followed by a 6 p.m. game against Iona if the weather permits.
