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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 15, 2003
SPRING HILL -- Springstead first baseman Stephanie Discepolo couldn't believe what was happening.
Two batters into Friday's Gulf Coast Athletic Conference game against Hernando, the Eagles, who had not allowed a run this season, trailed by one.
"It was depressing in the first inning to see they got a run already," Discepolo said. "How's the rest of the game going to go? It's only the first inning."
The rest of the game went much as the previous four had for Springstead.
Discepolo's two-run double highlighted a three-run first inning, and the Eagles did not allow another run in a 5-1 win at Springstead.
"That just pumped us up to make the extra effort to get them back," said Discepolo, whose sacrifice fly on Tuesday was the difference in a 1-0 victory over Lecanto.
Emily Eicholtz limited Hernando to three hits and three walks, and the defense did the rest as the Eagles ran their record to 5-0.
Second baseman Ashley Liberatore anchored Springstead's defense, dropping to her knees to rob Krystle Knott of a hit in the fifth inning and ranging far into the outfield to track down Scottisha Scrivens' pop fly in the sixth.
"Every night, the bats aren't going to be going," Springstead coach Craig Swartout said. "But every night, we can count on that defense to keep us close."
Hernando (4-2) lost its second consecutive game despite a double and a triple from Kristi Langworthy and six strong innings from pitcher Carolyn Gant.
Gant struck out six and held Springstead to six hits and two walks, but the Leopards committed six errors behind her.
"We beat ourselves," Hernando coach Angie Svagerko said. "Carolyn pitched a heck of a ballgame, we hit (Eicholtz), we just beat ourselves."
Hernando struck first, as Langworthy tripled to center to lead off the game, and Sophia Gill drove her home with a groundout to third.
But Springstead answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The Eagles added to their lead with Liberatore's run-scoring groundout in the fourth and an unearned run in the sixth.
Hernando had chances, but Langworthy was thrown out at home in the third and Eicholtz struck out Gill and Whitney Massingale in the fifth to escape a second-and-third, one-out jam.
"(Eicholtz) is not going to give up a whole bunch of stuff," Swartout said. "When they scored that run, she just decided, we're shutting the rest of that stuff down."