DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Senior Day was a memorable sweep for Bethune-Cookman as the Wildcats downed Jackson State 4-3 and 3-1 to conclude the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season Saturday at Sunnyland Park.
The lone senior,
Briana Paysinger, registered a walk-off RBI single to help the Wildcats (23-24 overall, 17-7 SWAC) recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win the opener that also gave Head Coach
Laura Watten her 750th career coaching victory.
Halyne Gonzalez registered both victories in the circle as B-CU won for the 20th time in 29 games.
GAME 1
Paysinger's one-out single to right scored
Carrington Robinson as B-CU rallied to take game one.
Jackson State (21-25, 12-12) scored one in the second and two in the fourth before B-CU got on the board in the fourth when
Shania Owens' single brought home Paysinger.
In the fifth,
Desirae Martinez' two-run single scored Robinson and
Haley Parks to tie the game.
Gonzalez worked two and a third innings of shutout relief to earn the victory.
Robinson went 4-4, while
Joslynn Davis and Paysinger each had two hits. Paysinger and
Julissa Gomez each had a double.
GAME 2
Gonzalez scattered six hits as the Wildcats did all their scoring in the third inning.
Martinez doubled home Parks and scored along with
Joslynn Davis on
Kayla Traylor's single.
Gonzalez walked one and struck out seven.
Traylor went 3-3 with two RBI, while Martinez was 2-3.
HEAD COACH LAURA WATTEN
"We can celebrate today and then get back to work tomorrow because we've got the conference tournament. We've been pushing just to be in this position so that we can have a decent seed going into the tournament."
"We were picked second to last, but that's also because nobody has seen the team play for two years."
"I knew what we had and we knew what we had, but also knew it was going to be a season of growth and a season of challenges and a lot of work because we are so young. And it's been challenging because we're playing conference play at this level, it is tough. And if you haven't been through it, you can't get frozen. It's easy to get frozen at times but these kids have learned how to play together and learned how to fight."
NOTES: B-CU, who had already clinched the SWAC Eastern Division title and the division's No.1 tournament seed, finished 10-2 at home in division play … Robinson's four-hit game was the third by a B-CU player this season, joining Parks (Alabama State on 3/19) and Martinez (Florida A&M on 4/3) … Robinson hit .545 for the series and now has an eight-game hitting streak … Gonzalez had an 0.43 ERA for the three games … B-CU won 11 of its final 12 SWAC games.
