CLERMONT, Fla. -- Hood College sent Fredonia packing from its Florida trip with a 5-2 loss Thursday at The Spring Games.

Hood's Sophie Leaman pitched a complete game and helped her own cause with a homer and an RBI single. The latter came during a tiebreaking three-run sixth inning.

The Blue Devils -- 7-5 on the Florida trip and 10-6 overall -- trailed 2-0 before tying the score with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

Erin Mushtare (Oneonta, N.Y.) led off the fourth with a double off the base of the fence in left. She scored on a one-out single to center by Lauren Pixley (Hamburg, N.Y.). In the fifth, Nikki Lent (Yaphank, N.Y.) beat out a soft liner into the hole at shortstop. She advanced all the way to third on a sacrifice bunt by Madison Cooley (Geneva, N.Y.). After a hit batter and walk loaded the bases, Mushtare singled to right to tie the game at 2-2.

The Blue Devils left the bases loaded, the third out recorded when Pixley sent a liner back through the box which Leaman snared. It was the second time Fredonia squandered a bases-loaded chance. Back-to-back bunt singles by Lent and Cooley and a one-out walk in the first preceded two strikeouts by Leaman. She finished the game with 11 strikeouts.

In addition to Lent and Mushtare, senior Khee Nance (Dunkirk, N.Y.) had two hits and raised her team-leading batting average to .396.

Freshman right-hander Sam Seegar (North Tonawanda, N.Y.) was the losing pitcher. She was on the winning pitcher earlier in the day as the Blue Devils rallied for a 9-7 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson-Fordham.

The Blue Devils are off for 15 days, then visit SUNYAC preseason favorite Cortland on March 31.



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