Florida Gulf Coast League Recap: Opening Weekend Action Sees “A Wild Circus” on the Fields!

Florida Gulf Coast League action wrapped up its opening weekend on Saturday (June 19, 2021) with five games to round out the slate, officially getting back on track after rain pushed back the league’s start to its second season on Wednesday and Thursday.

After three games around the diamonds at the Miss Sarasota Softball Complex, one team reigns undefeated – the Sarasota Circus, one of the league’s several expansion franchises brought in for 2021.

Here’s more on the opening weekend action:

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The Circus were in a wild one yet again, this time against the South Bradenton Skeeters.

Sarasota took a 5-1 lead after two innings thanks to a three-run homer from Washington’s Sarah Willis in the first and a sacrifice fly from Georgia’s Ellie Armistead and an RBI single from UCF’s Kasey Fava in the second.

That’s when things got wild.

South Bradenton hung a seven-spot in the third, which got started on a two-run shot from Autumn Belviy of Florida State, then Marshall’s Aly Harrell chased that with a three-run dinger of her own before the Circus could even get an out.

Seirra Leonetti of Nebraska-Omaha had a two-run single to finish off the scoring, giving the Skeeters an 8-5 lead after 2 1/2.

Somehow, that lead didn’t last for more than a few minutes.

Florida State’s Kaia LoPreste led off the bottom half with a solo homer to make it 8-6, then Missouri’s Riley Frizell smacked an RBI single. Three at-bats later, Armistead went big fly to left to put the Circus up 11-8 and continued to pour it on to finish the inning up 13-8 with an eight-spot being hung on the board by the end of it.

And they still weren’t done.

LoPreste added a two-run single to help the Circus out to a four-run fifth, which would be more than enough to invoke the five-inning run-rule to give the Skeeters their first loss of the summer, 17-8.

The Skeeters and Circus combined for 29 hits on 29 runs in the highest-scoring game so far in FGCL play.

Elsewhere, the Siesta Key Phinz used a 2-for-4 day from Quinnipiac’s Kat Rodriguez and got homers Sacramento State’s Lexi Webb and Georgia Tech’s Kinley Stewart to down the Bradenton Slice, 5-4. Georgia Tech’s Blake Neleman worked 6 1/3 innings of one-hit softball, striking out eight on 90 pitches. UCF’s Grace Jewell homered for Bradenton in the loss.

Impact handed the defending champion Myakka City River Mocs their first loss of the season, 4-2, holding off a late rally attempt in that one.

Mississippi State’s Allison Florian hit an RBI single and Wisconsin’s Ally Miklesh scored on an error to put the Impact ahead 2-0 after three.

The Impact got a homer from USC Upstate product Tiffany Domingue and another RBI single from Miklesh to earn their first win of the summer, getting eight strikeouts from UNCG’s Morgan Scott and Savanah Henley, who combined for seven innings of two-run softball, shutting down a Myakka City lineup that scored 19 in its first two games.

SUA Pioneers also got in the win column for the first time, using a two-run homer from Abby Hughes of Georgia Tech to get past the Bradenton Lynx, 4-3. The Pioneers also got a 2-for-2 day from Tampa Bay alumna McKayla Timmons of Ball State, who homered in the second to get her side on the board.

Louisiana’s Melissa Mayeux homered twice and drove in four as the Manatee Squeeze finished off Saturday action with a 9-0 win over the Anna Maria Aquanauts in five innings.

Devyn Howard of Liberty – and another Bay Area product – was 2-for-3 with three RBI and a double and a homer for the Squeeze, which improves to 2-1 on the young season.

— Will Turner, Extra Inning Softball