STARKVILLE — Jocelyn Erickson had carved out a role for herself at Oklahoma, the undisputed top program in college softball, but she had to look elsewhere if she wanted to play her natural position of catcher.
Blocked in Norman by one of the best backstops in the country in Kinzie Hansen, Erickson entered the transfer portal after playing first base and designated player with the Sooners. Unfortunately for Mississippi State, Erickson ended up at Florida and almost single-handedly led her new team to a series win at Nusz Park this weekend.
Erickson homered twice in Friday’s 8-5 Gators win, driving in five runs, then launched a go-ahead two run home run in the seventh inning of Saturday’s rubber game that completed a comeback from four runs down and ultimately gave Florida a 7-6 victory.
“Against a team like that, everyone matters,” Bulldogs head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “We had a couple chances to really break it open early, and we let them off the hook. We need to make sure we’re capitalizing when we have runners in scoring position in the middle of our lineup.”
No. 17 MSU (25-9, 6-6 Southeastern Conference) struck first in Friday’s game against Ava Brown when freshman Ella Wesolowski singled into center field to drive in two runs in the opening inning. But although she only struck out three batters over six-plus innings, Brown settled in and induced plenty of weak contact, not allowing another run until the seventh.
Sophomore right-hander Josey Marron cruised through the first three innings, using her signature drop ball to generate six ground ball outs, but ran into trouble in the fourth. After she issued leadoff walks to Skylar Wallace and Korbe Otis, Erickson crushed the first pitch she saw over the wall in right-center for a three-run shot, the No. 10 Gators’ first hit of the game, to put the visitors ahead by a run.
“She’s a great hitter, and she was ready. She was ready for the changeup the second time through,” Ricketts said. “That’s what this league is. Everybody, one through nine, everybody in this league can beat you. You have to have your best stuff any time you’re out there.”
The Bulldogs wasted freshman Kylee Edwards’ leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth, and Erickson then struck again in the sixth, driving a two-run homer out to nearly the same spot as her first long ball. Florida (31-5, 7-2) added three more runs in the inning, capped by a two-run shot from Brown in support of her own cause.
Marron also left the game during that inning after a line drive from Reagan Walsh hit off her fingertips and trickled into left field. Ricketts said she did not believe there was any structural damage, and Marron was in uniform the next day without any bandaging on her pitching hand.
A day after MSU scored seven runs in the sixth to come from behind and win, the Bulldogs tried to rally from six runs down again in the seventh, loading the bases with nobody out and plating two runs on a Nadia Barbary RBI single and a Madisyn Kennedy walk. But Keagan Rothrock entered the circle for Brown and closed things out. Right fielder Katie Kistler made a full-extension diving catch on Wesolowski’s line drive to end the game.
“(Brown) did a great job keeping us on our toes,” Ricketts said. “We need to be more disciplined in what we’re swinging at.”
MSU scored first again Saturday, plating two runs in the second on freshman Salen Hawkins’ RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to Sierra Sacco. Hawkins drove in another run on a sacrifice fly an inning later before the Gators began making noise in the fourth against Aspen Wesley. After a leadoff walk to Walsh, Brown hit her third home run of the weekend to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 3-2.
The hosts got those runs back in the bottom of the fourth on a Paige Cook sacrifice fly and a two-run double by Wesolowski, but Florida answered with two in the fifth to make it 6-4, a lead Wesley and MSU nursed into the seventh.
With the top of the Gators’ lineup seeing Wesley for the fourth time, Kendra Falby’s speed forced an errant throw from Wesley, and the leadoff batter was aboard. Wallace then laced a triple down the right-field line to make it a one-run game, and with one out, Erickson’s drive to right stayed fair as it cleared the fence to put Florida in front for the first time.
The Bulldogs brought the winning run to the plate in their half of the seventh, but Kennedy’s lazy fly to left landed harmlessly in Otis’ glove.
MSU has a midweek game Wednesday evening at Alabama-Birmingham, then heads to No. 22 South Carolina for a three-game series next weekend.
“It can be defeating to have a top-10 team on the ropes for a series win and then let it slip away, or it can be something that motivates us even more,” Ricketts said. “The hope is that it continues to show us that we belong in the conversation and that we can compete and beat these teams. I’m excited to see the response that we come back with.”
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