Box Score
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The LIU Brooklyn softball team sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning and cruised to a 9-4 victory over Eastern Michigan on the final day of the Florida Gulf Coast/Four Points by Sheraton Spring Break Tournament. The Blackbirds scored five runs in that pivotal first frame and pounded out 10 hits in the game.
Freshman Kayla Gloady continued her impressive first season with the Blackbirds, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Through 19 games, Gloady leads the team with a .327 batting average and also paces the squad with nine RBIs.
After freshman Shelley Procter set the Eagles down in order in the top of the first, graduate student Lauren Morizi was hit by a pitch and junior Nichole Toven followed with a single. A sacrifice bunt moved both runners over but a groundout put the Blackbirds in danger of stranding two in scoring position.
Gloady, however, had other ideas and singled through the left side to plate Morizi and put LIU in front 1-0. The base hit started a string of three straight singles that resulted in a 2-0 lead and a bases loaded situation for freshman Nikki Schroeder.
Schroeder worked a walk to force home another run, then senior Madison Zymkowitz continued the two-out charge with a two-run single to left field that bumped the bulge to 5-0. A walk to Morizi loaded the bases again, but the Eagles were able to end the rally a batter later.
EMU chipped away at LIU's lead, scoring a pair in the third and one more an inning later to get within 5-3 heading to the bottom of the fourth. But the Blackbirds responded with four runs of their own to give themselves a comfortable lead.
Zymkowitz started the run-scoring rally with a single, before another base hit from Morizi and two errors allowed Zymkowitz to score and put the score at 6-3. A groundout allowed Toven to cross home plate, and Gloady doubled down the left-field line to score two more and extend the cushion to 9-3.
From there, the Eagles scored a run in the sixth but was shut down from there by senior Cassie Vondrak who worked two hitless innings to end the game and register her first victory of the season.
LIU Brooklyn returns to action on March 7-9 at the USF Under Armour Showcase Tournament in Clearwater, Fla.