Syracuse wins USF Tournament title with a 7-5 victory over the Bulls
Syracuse capped its most successful weekend of the season with a 7-5, title-clinching win over tournament host South Florida.
USF (10-8) entered Sunday undefeated through four tournament games and riding an eight-game win streak. But Syracuse (8-9), behind strong pitching from Catie Dobbs and Alexa Romero, handed USF their first loss of the tournament.
The Orange opened the scoring in the top of the second with a solo shot from Alexis Kaiser, her second of the tournament and third on the season.
USF answered quickly in the bottom half, scoring a pair of runs and taking the lead despite not registering a hit in the inning. Two hit batters, a walk and passed balls plagued the second inning, gifting the Bulls a 2-1 lead.
Syracuse wasted no time regaining the lead in the third, with consecutive singles from Gabby Teran and Neli Casares-Maher setting the table for Rebecca Clyde, who reached on an error and drove home a run. An RBI groundout from Mia Cunnings tacked on the third run of the day for the Orange.
The back-and-forth battle continued when Madison Epperson homered for USF to knot it up at three in the bottom of the third.
In the fifth, Syracuse pushed across three runs and gained a lead they never gave up. Toni Martin had a 2-RBI single to score Jaime Barta and Jessica Skladal. Jamie Gregg tacked on an insurance run with an RBI groundout later in the inning. Martin would finish the day 3-3 with two RBIs.
The Bulls drew closer in the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Bethaney Keen, but Gregg drove home another run with a single in the seventh to pull the SU lead back to three. The second RBI in the game for Gregg put her at a tie with Kaiser for the team lead with 11 RBIs this season.
Romero capped her five innings of work with eight strikeouts and three earned runs after taking over for Dobbs in the third. Dobbs started and gave up two unearned runs. Together, the two Syracuse pitchers held USF to just four hits and struck out a combined ten batters in the win.