It was a weekend of a goal met and records broken for the University of North Florida softball team.
Rest assured ... they’re not close to being done.
Senior Allison Benning belted her team-record 17th home run of the season in the first inningand pitched a complete game, allowing three hits and striking out five as the Ospreys beat Jacksonville University 4-1 on April 19 at the UNF Softball Complex, sweeping the three-game home River City Rumble series and completing a 6-0 record against the Dolphins this season.
Senior catcher Mackenzie Woods added her fifth homer in the sixth inning as the Ospreys (37-12, 17-1)beat the Dolphins (20-22, 7-11) for the eighth time in the last nine meetings.
Ospreys clinch ASUN division title
UNF also clinched the ASUN’s Graphite Division with six games to play, their first regular-season conference championship since 2013 when they went 18-6 to nip USC-Upstate by half a game.
That will be a long-awaited trophy for the softball program. But there’s bigger game out there: clinching the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament May 6-10 in Oxford, Ala., and then winning it, a year after Florida Gulf Coast turned the Ospreys back in the championship game on a walkoff home run.
UNF's victory in game two of the series made coach Jeff Conrad the fastest in school history to reach 100 career wins.
Conrad said he wanted the team to enjoy the division, and at the same time not get complacent, with a home series upcoming against Queens (14-28 overall and 7-11 in the ASUN) and a road set at Florida Gulf Coast to close the regular season May 2-3.
“A little bit of both,” he said. “Big picture, these players are focused on finishing the job they started last year and making it to the championship game, winning and making it to a [NCAA] regional. We can’t overlook that it’s been 12 years since this program won a regular-season conference championship. We’re going to take a moment to enjoy this because it’s not easy to do. But we have six games to play and they’re all important.”
UNF can clinch the conference’s best record by splitting those final six games. The No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which carries with it a double bye, will be decided by the RPI between the two division champions.
The Ospreys were 47th before Saturday’s game. Eastern Kentucky, which has a two-and-a-half game lead over Central Arkansas in the Gold Division, was 75th and UCA 81st.
Benning (19-5) atoned for a rough outing in the series opener on April 17 when she gave up two hits and three walks in the first inning. UNF fell behind 3-0 but Benning got the comeback started when she led the fourth inning off with a solo homer, setting the program Division I career record with 32.
Her home run in the third game was a blast to dead-center.
“It’s an incredible achievement ... I’m super-happy,” she said. “We’re all very excited [about winning the division] but we all know the job’s not done yet. We can be happy tonight, we can celebrate tonight but once we get back on the field for practice on Tuesday, it’s back to the mission.”
Game 1: UNF rallies in 10 innings
JU took their early lead on a two-run double by Averi Harcus in the first inning and an RBI single by Creekside graduate Madison Bratek in the second.
The Ospreys tied the game in the bottom of the seventh when Hadlee Reichert smacked a two-run double.It remained tied until the Dolphins took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th when Bratek, who started the inning on second, scored on Harcus’ RBI single.
But the Ospreys scored the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the 10th on RBI hits by Lauren Brock and Chloe Culp.
Macie Hunolt pitched four scoreless innings for the Ospreys and Taylor Cook (2-1) threw five innings of two-hit ball, with five strikeouts.
Game 2: Ospreys leave no doubt
UNF scored seven runs in the first inning and went on to win 10-1 in five innings. Kelsey Vogel had the big hit in the inning with a bases-loaded triple.
Kylah Berry, Cameron Ponich (4-3) and Ashley Connor, a Paxon graduate, combined in the circle to allow only two hits.
Game 3: UNF's Benning dominant
Benning faced only one batter over the minimum in the first four innings, allowing one hit, while UNF was building a 3-0 lead.
After Benning’s homer in the first, Kalyn McCarthy reached on a bunt single, stole second and scored on an error and Grace Shaw-Rockey delivered an RBI single.
Woods homered with two out in the sixth.
JU’s Alayna Gaddy wrapped her fourth homer of the year around the foul pole in left to spoil Benning’s shutout bid.
