Florida Tech Panthers Sports Roundup
By Florida Tech // March 20, 2014
Softball Begins SSC Series at Saint Leo Today
Florida Tech begins a five-game road trip with a Sunshine State Conference series at Saint Leo on Friday and Saturday and the Panthers enter the series tied for second place in the SSC at a conference record of 6-3 and are 20-11 overall. The Lions, picked to finish second in the league by its head coaches, are in sixth place at 2-4 and are 20-12 on the season.
Newcomer Brigit Godfrey has made a big impact in her first 31 games as a Panther. She is batting .301 with a team-high 28 hits, 21 runs scored and 16 stolen bases. She is also tied for the team lead with 13 walks.
Rachel Ionata, Rachel Pence and Taylor Smith have combined for a sub-two ERA in 213 1/3 innings pitched. Pence leads the staff at a 1.88 clip and 11 wins.
Saint Leo is on quite a roll as the Lions are 10-1 over their last 11 games. Adriana Sanders is leading the team with a .345 batting average. McKenzie Burns has a team-high 31 hits and 25 runs scored. Saint Leo is hitting .287, which ranks third in the conference.
Ashley Ehlers and Sarah Steiner have split pitching duties for the Lions. Steiner is 11-5 with a 1.69 ERA. Ehlers is 6-2 with one save and a 2.02.
Both are holding opposing hitters to a .228 batting average.
FIT and Saint Leo have split their last six meetings. The Panthers earned the series sweep in 2012 and the Lions won all three games of the series last year.
Live stats will be available for all three games courtesy of Saint Leo at FloridaTechSports.com.
Stony Brook Sweeps Afternoon Tennis Matches
Three Panthers saw action for the first time in the spring on Thursday afternoon as Zach Eichholz teamed with Daniel Armellino in doubles No. 3, Diego Ramirez competed in singles No. 6 on the men’s side, and Charoo Agrawal saw action in flight No. 6 on the women’s end.
No. 45 Florida Tech (6-7) fell to Stony Brook University (7-3), 7-2, and the No. 18 women’s tennis team was downed by the Seawolves (4-3), 7-2, at the DeSoto Tennis Courts.
Beau Fieldsend and Matic Leskovar earned their eighth win of the season in doubles No. 2, defeating Tyler Hoffman and Marcelo Locatelli, 8-3. The duo is now 7-3 in their last 10 doubles matches and 11-5 overall. Anchoring the singles lineup was sophomore Patrick Hernandez, who won his fourth consecutive flight with a nailbiter over Raphael Termat in singles No. 1, 7-6, 7-5.
On the women’s side, Natasa Vukovic and Meritt Rabson improved to 3-1 in doubles No. 1, downing Polina Movchan and Jackie AltanSarnai, 8-6. Vukovic is now 17-6 in doubles matches, 14 wins coming in doubles No. 1.
“I thought that both our men’s and women’s teams put up a fight today,” said head coach Bill Macom.
“These were very strong Division I programs we played. Teams of this caliber are all that we have remaining on our schedule this year. Nothing is going to be easy as the season winds down.”
The Panthers face Missouri-St. Louis in a neutral site tilt on Monday, March 24. FIT returns to DeSoto on March 29 to take on Sunshine State Conference foe Saint Leo University.
