The Jacksonville University Softball team dropped its first doubleheader of the season against Lipscomb University and then battled back as they won their next one against Belmont this past weekend.

In the first game Friday, April 8, Lipscomb hit two clutch home runs to defeat the Dolphins in Atlantic Sun Conference play. The game ended their 10-game winning streak and gave them their first defeat in conference play despite having 12 runners in that game.

The Lady Bison’s Whitney Kiihnl fanned 11 batters and scattered six hits in seven frames. Junior Sarah Sigrest recorded the game one loss and gave up four runs from three but did have six strikeouts in six innings. Offensively for the Fins, Sophomore Olivia Kline got two hits and junior Kayla Ouellet registered one hit as well.

In the second game Kiihnl closed to give them the win and gave a two-shutout inning performance after Ali Watson struck out five batters in five scoreless innings. Kline allowed four runs on five hits and four walks in six innings that gave her the loss for game two.

The Fins head coach Amanda Lehotak felt that her team left opportunities out there on the diamond.

“This just wasn’t our night,” Lehotak said. “We definitely had our chances, but were not able to capitalize on any of them. Lipscomb made us pay for our mistakes. We have to regroup and get ready to battle again tomorrow.”

Two clutch homeruns helped Lipscomb win the game. The two victories for Lipscomb gives them an overall record of 20-14 and a 7-1 A-Sun conference record while leaving JU 28-14 and 8-2.

The following day, Saturday, JU made the most of their runs sweeping Belmont in their doubleheader, 4-0 and 13-0 in the A-Sun conference play.

The two wins brought JU up to 30-14 and 10-2 while Belmont is now 8-29 and 1-9. The Fins built registered their sweep off momentum. In the first game they had four runs off of 11 hits and the second game recorded 13 runs from 13 hits.

Sigrest was awarded with the game-one victory allowing only three hits and sitting down four batters in seven innings. The game two win went to Kline when she scattered six hits over six innings and struck out four batters.

JU felt they needed a moral boost like this after losing two important conference games in the previously doubleheader.

“This is exactly what we needed,” Lehotak said. “I wanted us to be more aggressive and take advantage of our opportunities better than we did yesterday, which we did each game. Everyone contributed to the win and we have to good efforts in the circle. We need to use more days like this during the final part of the schedule.”

Junior Amanda Schmidt, Sophomore Sarah Simon and Kline all accounted for 15 of JU’s 17 runs that day.

The Dolphins are scheduled to return to action Wednesday with one game against Florida A&M located in Tallahassee, Fla. at 6 p.m.

Photo Courtesy of JU Athletics

The Jacksonville University Softball team swept Atlantic Sun Conference opponents USC Upstate and East Tennessee State University this past week. This resulted in sophomore pitcher Olivia Kline winning the honors of A-Sun Pitcher of the Week.

In the cold ETSU game, the Dolphins overcame the odds and won 4-1 in the first game and 9-0 in the second game completing a dominating sweep in Johnson City, Tenn.  In game one Sarah Sigrest worked hard for the win by striking out ten batters. Offensively, in game one senior Katie Kelly got a double that created a new JU career mark set at 36.

Game two the Dolphins played hard and Kline (11-5) pitched an amazing no hitter. Along with the no hitter she got a three-run home run to finish the night. Fellow sophomore Sarah Simon had a couple of two-run homers and a double. Junior Amanda Schmidt complimented them with a home run as well.

To further dominate the A-sun conference, the Fins defeated USC Upstate 3-2 in the first matchup and then 4-1 in the second this past Saturday in Spartanburg, S.C.

Simon hit the game-winning RBI in extra innings in game while going 3-for-4 and Sigrest got the win while pitching ten innings in the circle. In game two, Kline recorded her third win in the week and Jacey Werner registered three hits.

The Fins coach appreciated the strong play the team was able to put forth in the games.

“These were two more good efforts from our team, Olivia as well as Sarah, each had good nights in the circle,” JU Head Coach Amanda Lehotak said.

Large part of Kline’s A-Sun Pitcher of The Week honors came from her play against USC Upstate and ETSU.

She is a native from Trinity, Fl. During a span of 21 innings, she went 3-0 with an ERA of 0.33 and only allowed one run after seven hits. The week began strong for her when she struck out seven in a three-hit game she completed throughout to leave Georgia Southern scoreless.

“Olivia has been getting stronger and stronger as the year has progressed which will help us for the final part of the schedule,” Lehotak said.

The Dolphins plan to return to action Friday with a doubleheader versus Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. at 5 p.m. This is after their Florida State game was postponed due to heavy rainfall without a new date set yet.

Photo Courtesy of JU Athletics

As spring break was nearing an end on Sunday March 20, the JU Softball team had one more game to play before classes were thrown into the mix again. They faced Boston University in Clearwater, Florida at the University of South Florida “The Game Tournament”.  This game was extremely close all day as the ladies battled each inning in this low-scoring outing.

BU took a 1-0 lead in the third inning as they turned three singles into a run. The Lady Fins answered back in the following inning. Freshman Jacey Warner hit a solo home run and finished the day 2-for-3. The score remained tied at one until the sixth inning where JU was caught in a bases loaded jam. Senior Pitcher Jackie Samuels relieved SP Olivia Kline, and chipped away at BU, escaping the inning allowing zero runs.

JU finally gained the lead in the top of the seventh inning making it 2-1, only to give it right back in the bottom of the inning. The Terriers tied the game up after a JU error. Only two batters later, BU struck again due to another JU error and scored the game-winning run, as they beat the Lady Fins 3-2.

“This was a tough way to lose, we were patient enough to work at getting the lead back, but had mistakes last half that hurt us,” JU Softball Head Coach Amanda Lehotak said.

The Dolphins received some good news after the weekend though as junior Pitcher Sarah Sigrest received “Pitcher of the Week” honors for the second time in three weeks. She went 2-1 with a 1.83 ERA, and sat down 16 batters through 23 innings.

“This week I feel like I just did what I needed to do to win, my team played great defense behind me, and we were all really focused going into the weekend because we knew it was going to be tough,” said Sigrest.

Sigrest and the rest of the Lady Fins open up their Atlantic Sun Conference schedule Friday in a doubleheader against Mercer University at the JU Softball Complex.

Photo by Lorna Kelso

This past weekend, Feb. 25-27, the Jacksonville University softball team took part in the Strike Out Cancer Tournament in Boca Raton Florida. The Dolphins (9-5) opened the tourney with a 10-0 blowout win over the University of Connecticut. A six run 3rd inning and strong pitching by sophomore Olivia Kline led to this comfortable victory.

In the second game of the day JU wasn’t as successful. They fell to tournament host, Florida Atlantic University. The Dolphins only notched three singles in the game as they lost 2-0 to the Owls; junior pitcher Sarah Sigrest recorded the loss.

“We didn’t take the first game intensity into the second game,” JU Head Coach Amanda Lehotak said

In the second day of action for the Fins they played in another double-header, first against the University of Maryland, then the University of Pittsburgh. The first game against the Terrapins was a hard fought outing that went into extra innings. Sophomore Olivia Kline pitched a very solid game but was given the loss due to only one run of support by the Dolphins.

At the plate freshman Karson Tuck had the only RBI for JU all day in the 2-1 loss. In the nightcap against the Panthers junior Sigrest earned another loss. This was only after an extremely strong start where she sat down the first nine batters of the game and JU showed an offensive spark early. The Panthers scored a run in the fourth then two more in the sixth to secure a 3-0 win over the Dolphins.

After back-to-back close losses, the Dolphins played the University of Connecticut on the last day of the tournament, hoping to get the bad taste out of their mouth. JU took the early lead in the second inning thanks to freshman Meagan Balding. Balding hit an RBI double, then later scored on a two-out single by junior Melissa Morales. This 2-0 lead by the fins was quickly erased as the Lady Huskies scored one run in three consecutive innings to go up 3-2. That was all UCONN pitcher KiKi Saveriano needed to secure the win.

“We just can’t buy a break right now, we were able to get the lead early, but we let our foot off the gas pedal.” JU Coach Lehotak said.

The lady Dolphins hope to try their luck at another tournament next week on Mar. 4 in Clearwater, Florida.

Photo Courtesy Lorna Kelso

The sounds of dugout chants, and aluminum bats were back in the valley this past weekend at Jacksonville University. The JU Softball team played four games in two days on Feb. 11 and 12. The highly anticipated 2011 season opener was against the University of Buffalo Bulls. Both teams started the season off slowly until action picked up in the sixth inning thanks to JU juniors Kayla Ouellet and Amanda Schmidt. Both knocked in a run each to give the Fins a 2-0 lead in the game.

The Bulls then answered in the bottom of the sixth with a run of their own to cut the deficit to one. In the seventh though All-Atlantic Sun performer Ouellet came through again with a clutch RBI double. Junior Pitcher Sarah Sigrest then finished her strong performance in the bottom of the seventh to get the 3-1 win.

JU Softball Head Coach Amanda Lehotak seemed to be very pleased with the season opening win.

“I saw a lot of things we did well and other things we need to correct, but that is typical on the first day of the season,” Lehotak said. “Overall, I’m pleased with the effort.”

A few hours later in the day, the Lady fins picked up right where they left off, against Bethune-Cookman University with a 5-0 victory. JU started the scoring off fast; in the first inning with sophomore Sarah Simon hitting an RBI double to left, and then freshman Jacey Warner knocked in another to go up 3-0 in the inning.

The scoring took a break until the fourth inning when JU struck again with a two-out homerun by junior Brittany Eppley. The Dolphins tacked on another run for insurance in the fifth inning giving them a 5-0 lead. Sophomore Olivia Kline pitched a gem to secure this shutout victory for the Fins.

The junior pitcher Sigrest commented on the team’s first day success.

“In our first two wins we remained calm throughout the game, while we struggled to hit and we remained confident that we could win,” Sigrest said.

The Fins got back to it the next day as they faced the University of North Carolina, and the University of Kansas. In the first game against UNC, the Lady Fins were led by Ouellet with two doubles and an RBI. UNC took a 2-0 lead in the forth and that was enough to put away the dolphins who only scored one run. Olivia Kline took the loss, giving up two runs and five hits.

In the nightcap against KU, the Fins fell behind 2-0 really early thanks to two costly errors. The Jayhawks continued to pile on runs in the fifth inning with a Grand Slam to left field to give them a secure 6-0 lead. JU managed to manufacture one run, losing the game 6-1. JU coach Amanda Lehotak remained positive after the losses though.

“Overall, I’m happy with this weekend,” Lehotak said. “I saw a lot of good things out there that we will build on to be successful with this season.”

The next outing for the Dolphins is Wednesday, Feb. 16, when they host #6 University of Florida.

“Florida is obviously a really good team, we are going to have to play our game against them,” said Pitcher Sigrest, Junior. “We got to be smart, and do all the little things, if everyone plays their best game we will win.”

The game will be at the JU Softball Complex, and is expected to start at 6 p.m.

Heads up students at Jacksonville University, activity in the infamous valley is about to pick up tremendously. The JU softball team is a few weeks away from getting the 2011 season underway. The upcoming season looks very promising due to very dominating play this past fall by the Lady Dolphins.

The Lady Dolphins finished with an unblemished record of 8-0, thanks to their strength in offense, posting a .347 batting average with 40 runs, 37 RBI and 16 Doubles as a team this fall. JU Softball Head Coach Amanda Lehotak commented on her team’s fall success saying, “I think going 8-0 will help motivate the team to work hard the rest of the fall and have that momentum carry us into the spring.”

This fall the coaches’ wish will hopefully become the teams command, as spring is finally here. The Dolphins finished fifth last year in the Atlantic Sun Conference and hope to change their fortunes in 2011. They are on a positive track to do so, returning 13 players led by the Atlantic Sun All-Tournament team standout senior Kayla Ouellet, who had a team best 66 hits, 32 runs and 16 stolen bases in 2010.

On the mound, one of the standout pitchers JU will feature this year is junior Sarah Sigrest. Sigrest sees a very promising future for JU in 2011. “I expect a 40-win season, and a bid to reach the regional’s is not out of the question for this team,” she said.  Sigrest dominated in the fall going 3-0 and had a team-best 30 strikeouts; she is one of the leaders the team will depend on throughout the whole season.

During the off-season JU also added two new coaches to Lehotak’s staff. Rachael Click, one of the additions, is from the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire where she helped them win a Division III national championship as a coach. The other addition is Dan Sperl who spent the last three years coaching at Western Washington University.

Coach Lehotak talked about her new acquisitions saying, “I am excited to bring on Dan and Rachael, they will help take this program to the next level.” Some of the players already see a slight change compared to last year including junior second baseman Melissa Morales who said, “We have been more positive with each other as a team, and definitely more upbeat.”

The coaching hires will play a major role in 2011 and it looks as though the play of freshman may as well. In the off-season JU brought in four freshman and they were quite productive in the fall. Freshman Miranda Fleming finished with a team best 10 RBI’s and second was her roommate and fellow freshman Karson Tuck who had 6 RBI’s 5 runs and two doubles.

Entering the 2011 campaign the Lady Dolphins look like they have put together a good healthy formula for success. “This is the year we are all together, and all get along, we have great team cohesiveness,” said the Junior, Morales. The team has added new coaches, new talent and is led by four seniors including Ouellet, so the experience is there.

“This is the strongest we’ve ever been 1 through 9 in our lineup, and I expect to win the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament,” Sigrest said.  The Lady Dolphins seem to have the perfect lead off to the season, hopefully they will be able to steal success safely come the start of the season.

The season opens up at 4:35 p.m. February 11, 2011 against Buffalo at the JU Softball Complex.