Tihana Zupanic pitched five strong innings and Dontaysha Gobourne pitched a scoreless sixth in a game shortened to six innings due to darkness as the Saints shutdown the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota 4-1 in the second game of the doubleheader after SCF won the opener 3-0.

Zupanic (2-2) kept the Manatees off balance throughout game two and the Saints hitters did enough to get the job done against the FCSAA #5 ranked team.

"Ti did another great job in the circle," said SF head coach Lindsay Fico. "She is doing a much better job of getting ahead in the count and throwing outs for our defense."

The Saints (9-12) took the lead in the first when Kaitlyn Bennett led off with a walk and moved to third on a single by Adriana Garip. Karina Ortiz-Munoz followed with a sacrifice fly to put the Saints on the board.

The Saints were up 2-0 when SCF (17-5)  cut the lead in half with a run in the top of the fifth. Cameron Trehy answered with her third homerun of the season with the bases empty in the bottom half of the fifth and Ortiz-Munoz singled in pinch runner Alanis Mercado one out later to provide the final margin of victory.

"Karina had a great day," said Fico. "She was responsible for three of our four runs in game two and played perfect defense all day."

Gabi Mathre (6-6) was the hard-luck loser in the opener as the Saints failed to put the ball in play with runners on base in the 3-0 loss.

"I'm proud of how the girls bounced back after a pretty flat first game," said Fico. "Our bats improved and we maintained our composure defensively when runners were on. I feel like we may have turned a corner today."

Garip had four hits on the day for the Saints while Ortiz-Munoz had three RBI.

The Saints are off until Friday when they will host St. Petersburg College for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.

For all SF Athletics schedules, stats and more visit santafesaints.com.

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