CLERMONT, Fla. –
Skylar Hall (
So.-Negaunee, Mich.) threw a one-hit shutout in her collegiate debut and
Juliana Hall (
Jr.-Portage, Ind.) homered as the Lakeland University softball team got its spring break trip off to a good start with a 6-0 win over Russell Sage (N.Y.) College Sunday in the Clermont Spring Games.
The Muskies received a superb pitching performance and were opportunistic offensively in dominating their season opener. It wound up being Lakeland's only game of the day after a second contest against Otterbein (Ohio) College was canceled due to an umpire shortage, leaving the Muskies 1-0 after the first day of a weeklong stay in Florida.
Skylar Hall's first game as a Muskie could not have gone much better. She allowed only a single hit and walked three while striking out six in seven innings.
Hall retired the first six batters she faced and quickly negated leadoff walks in the third and fourth innings, including with the help of a 5-4-3 double play in the fourth. The Gators' lone hit was a two-out triple by Katelyn Rice in the bottom of the fifth inning, but Hall got Isabella Vano to ground out to third to end the inning and again stranded a runner after a one-out walk in the seventh.
Skylar Hall received all the run support she would need in the second inning when
Hannah Volom (
Fr.-Portage, Ind.) singled and later came around to score on a throwing error. The Muskies would build a more comfortable margin one inning later, when in the top of the third
Madi Johnson (
So.-Vernon Hills, Ill.) reached on an error,
Hannah Nelson (
So.-Loves Park, Ill.) singled and
Juliana Hall followed with a big blast, a three-run homer for her first collegiate home run.
Lakeland would add two more runs in the top of the fifth, with
Cheyenne Mathas (
Sr.-St. John, Ind.) hitting a double to score Johnson and
Hannah Hornsby (
Sr.-Brookville, Ind.) reaching on an error allowing Mathas to score.
Gabby Greetan (
So.-Manitowoc, Wis.) and
Makenna Hullinger (
Fr.-St. John, Ind.) both added hits for the Muskies, who stranded just three runners. Lakeland also stole five bases, including two each by Nelson and Johnson and one by
Nyah Odekirk (
So.-Fond du Lac, Wis.).
Kadence Schulte rook the loss for Russell Sage, allowing four hits and four runs (two earned) over four innings.
The Muskies are in action again Monday with two games scheduled. Lakeland takes on Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) University and the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg, and start times for both games have been moved up an hour with the first game against Mount St. Joseph at 8 a.m. Central time (9 a.m. in Florida) and the second versus Pitt-Greensburg at 10:15 a.m. (11:15 a.m. Eastern).