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Quakers take two in Florida

WC gets first sweep of season

March 7, 2012

Kelsey Becker (at left) ripped a pair of hits in Wilmington's win over Geneva.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Wilmington College played its best ball of the spring en route to winning a pair of games in the Gene Cusic Classic Wednesday.

The Quakers (5-3) beat Geneva, 4-2, in the opener and finished the day’s sweep with a 5-2 win over Alverno.

“We came out today and did the three things that you need to do to win: hit, pitch and play good defense. We were solid all the way through. I was very proud of the way our kids played today,” Wilmington head coach Beth Floyd said.

Stacy Lunsford (Wilmington/Clinton-Massie) had three of Wilmington’s 10 hits in the opener as the Quakers provided more than enough support for starting pitcher Danielle Monnier (Houston).

Elise Mariner (North Canton/Hoover), Kelsey Becker (Clarksville, Ind.) and Chelsea Morrow (South Vienna/Northeastern) had two hits apiece.

“We hit the ball well throughout the order,” Floyd said. “We also did a nice job of running the bases and put a lot of pressure on their defense.”

Monnier went the distance and gave up six hits and one earned run to raise her record to 2-2.

Brooke Byrne (Wilmington) led off game two with a homer, her first of three hits on the game.

“Stacy saw the ball real well. She jumped out the first game and really set the tone for us. Brooke was in a little bit of a slump, but came out of it in a big way with the homer to lead off game two. She was just lights-out the rest of the way.”

The Quakers broke the game open with four more runs in the top of the second.

Jess Clutter (Englewood/Northmont) took care of business from there. The freshman pitched a complete game two-hitter and did not surrender an earned run to raise her record to 3-1.

“Our pitchers did a great job again today. They work hard and they are very competitive. It’s a battle with every batter up there. They kept batters off balance and changed speed and location," Floyd said.