North Florida Softball (17-21 overall, 5-4 A-Sun) won its weekend series against the Lipscomb Bison at the UNF Softball Complex to pull into a three-way tie for first place in the conference.

North Florida 4       Lipscomb 1

In game one of the doubleheader, the Ospreys never trailed the Bison. Shelby Duncan had an RBI double and RBI single to bring in Navia Penrod in the first and third innings. Penrod would score again off Stacy McClelland’s RBI single.

The only run for the Bison came off an Osprey throwing error in the sixth.

Osprey pitcher Logan Green pitched a complete game, allowing zero earned runs on four hits.

North Florida 6  Lipscomb 5

Thirty minutes following the near shutout, the Ospreys found themselves in a nail-biter during the second game.

A throwing error by North Florida helped the Bison take an early lead in the first, and Lipscomb tacked another run on in the third with an RBI single.

In the third, Penrod hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Ashley Niesman and make it a 2-1 game.  The Ospreys would take the first lead of the day after Jenna Brownell knocked a run home, and Jen Valle hit a two-RBI triple in the bottom of the fourth.

The game came down to the bottom of the seventh, after a fielder’s choice tied the score 5-5. With Brownell on third base, Ashley Niesman hit the game-winning RBI single to bring Brownell home. At the plate, Brownell made an acrobatic maneuver to avoid the tag before sliding into home plate for the walk-off, series clinching win.

North Florida 0 Lipscomb 16

In the final game of the series, the Ospreys would not have any answers for the Lipscomb offense.

After being held scoreless early, Lipscomb scored runs on an RBI single and two-RBI double in the top of the third.  A throwing error by the Ospreys pushed the Bison lead to 4-2 in the fifth inning.

In the seventh, the Lipscomb offense came alive with 12 runs to bring the score to 16-0. The Ospreys would remain scoreless the rest of the game.

Next, North Florida will face cross-town rival Jacksonville University for a three-game series at JU on April 16. The first pitch will be at 1 p.m.

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