Blue Raiders drop Game 1 against the Owls

Friday, March 31

Murfreesboro, TN

5:00 PM CT

Middle Tennessee

23-9, 0

Florida Atlantic

22-12, 0

Florida Atlantic

Middle Tennessee

3/31/2023 7:51:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Box Score Season Stats

Sargent’s three-RBI day not quite enough against hot hitting Owls

By: Sam Doughton, MTSU Athletics

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee softball duels well in the circle early, but fell behind with a late rally from Florida Atlantic, dropping the series opener 10-4 on Friday evening at Blue Raider Softball field.

Middle Tennessee (23-9, 4-3 C-USA) finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth after FAU (22-12, 4-3 C-USA) took their first lead of the game in the top half. A leadoff single from Ava Tepe started a rally, with Julia Garcia then doubling over the first base bag to set up a sacrifice bunt from Shelby Sargent, who scored Tepe on the fielder's choice to tie the game 1-1.

The Owls quickly struck back, however, plating three runs in the top of the fifth courtesy of a pair of home runs into the turbulent winds on a breezy day in Murfreesboro. FAU continued the offensive production the next time up, adding five runs in the top of the sixth to threaten an early end to the game.

The Blue Raiders fought back in the bottom half, however, once against starting the rally with a Tepe single. Julia Garcia again moved the pair to second and third with a hit and Shelby Sargent drove them in with a triple off the right field wall. Sargent scored one batter later on a Savannah Behabetz ground out to help put MTSU a little closer.

The Owls would add another run in the top of the seventh on their fourth home run of the evening to stretch the lead to 10-4, which proved to be too much to overcome, as FAU ended the game with three straight outs to take the opener.

By the Numbers

4: Triples by Shelby Sargent this season, leading Conference USA in the category and tied for 14th in the nation.

5-for-8: The day at the plate for the 3-5-6 spots in the MTSU batting order (Tepe, Garcia, Sargent). The trio combined for all but one of the Blue Raiders' hits and all of MTSU's runs.

3: Sacrifice bunts between the two teams. Shelby Sargent's sac bunt in the fourth inning was the only sac bunt to earn an RBI.

Reaction from Head Coach Jeff Breeden

"Basically in that inning (the bottom of the sixth), I said we're going to see whether or not you want to allow yourself to get run-ruled at home, or you don't. And we rose to the occasion, scored some runs right there. But we're down too far. When you're playing a good team, which they are, everybody in our conference is good, you can't get down like that and expect to just keep coming back and coming back.

"Maybe tonight was their night, I didn't think their right fielder is going to make that play on Anyce. We were not as sharp as we needed to be tonight, so we didn't deserve to win. That's kind of the way it goes."

Up Next

Conference USA play continues against Florida Atlantic on Saturday, with first pitch in Game 2 of the series set for 4 p.m. at Blue Raider Softball Field. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 for those who cannot join us.

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