BOCA RATON, Fla. – On the second day of the FAIU “Strike Out Cancer” Tournament, the FIU softball team lost to No. 15 Missouri 5-0 before beating Providence 4-1 on Saturday, Feb. 21.

Missouri 5 – FIU 0 | Box Score

Similar to Friday’s outing, FIU went scoreless against No. 15-ranked Missouri in a 5-0 loss.  The Golden Panthers were held to just three hits in a 7-0 loss to the Tigers on Friday and had seven on Saturday, but were unable to get a run across.

Senior Katie Bell and freshman Ashley McClain each had two hits to lead the FIU offense who was scoreless for the fourth time this season.  Senior Kim Rodriguez was 1-for-3 and extended her hitting streak to eight games.

Freshman Jennifer Gniadek (5-3) started for FIU and went five innings, giving up all five runs while striking out six.

After striking out the first two batters of the game, Gniadek gave up a double and then a single scored the runner on second to take a 1-0 lead.

Mizzou had runners at second and third and two outs in the second inning.  Their lead-off hitter, Shana White, hit a soft single to Gniadek to score the runner from third.  The Tigers had the same situation with the next batter up and MU called a double steal.  They scored the runner from third while Landau threw out the runner attempting to steal from third to give Mizzou a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers had runners at second and third again in the fifth, this time with no one out.  They scored both runs to extend the lead to 5-0.

MU loaded the bases in the sixth with no outs before Gniadek was lifted for Kasey Barrett.  The first batter she faced was Abby Vock who lined into a double play as the ball was lined to Desiree Fink at shortstop who then flipped the ball to third base for the second out.  Barrett then got Kathryn Poet to fly out and get out of the bases loaded jam.

Barrett pitched two innings of shutout ball in relief.  Missouri’s Stacy Delaney pitched six scoreless innings and struck out five to get the win.

FIU 4 – Providence 1 | Box Score

FIU had only one hit, but scored four to beat Providence 4-1.  FIU improved to 10-6 while Providence fell so 1-4.

It was the least amount of hits FIU has had this season.  Sophomore Jasmine Parra’s single in the third inning was the lone base knock.

Junior Kasey Barrett (4-1) pitched her fourth complete game of the season by walking none and striking out three on four hits.

Providence had runners at second and third with one out in the third inning.  Katelyn Revens then grounded out to second base to score the game’s first run.

The Golden Panthers received back-to-back walks to lead off the top of the fourth and then Jessica Landau reached base on a fielder’s choice.  The bases were loaded with no outs when Ashley McClain hit the ball to the second baseman who was unable to field it cleanly.  Two runs scored to give FIU a 2-1 lead and McClain went to second on the two-run error.  Still with no outs in the inning and the bases loaded, Lauren Spiers hit a sharp drive to the left fielder.  Landau came home to score on the sacrifice fly to make the score 3-1.

FIU scored one more in the sixth inning.  After a walk and a hit by pitch, Fink drove in a run by forcing an error on the shortstop. All four of the Golden Panthers’ runs were scored without the help of a hit.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Friars had runners at first and third with one out when Barrett got Justine Stratton to fly out to Iriseldis Soberon who then threw out the runner trying to score from third.

Providence’s Danielle Bertolette gave up all four runs and walked six in 5.1 innings to get the loss.

The Golden Panthers will next play Fordham at University Park on Sunday, Feb. 22 at Noon.  Live stats of the final day of the FAIU “Strike Out Cancer” Tournament can be found at FIUsports.com.