By Tyler Holder

The Seminole State Raiders came to town Sept. 30 for an exhibition double header, providing fans a sneak-peek to what the Ospreys will look like in the spring.

UNF beat the Raiders, a junior college from Seminole County, handily in both games, improving to 4-0 in preseason.

Senior Jackie Reese sent a ball sailing over the fence in the first inning of the opening game, driving in a total of two runs. The Ospreys tallied two runs in the bottom of the first inning, adding to Reese’s long ball and making the score 4-0 early. The Ospreys were victorious in both games, winning 6-3 in the first game and 5-2 in the second

“As soon as I made contact, I knew it was out,” said Reese about her home run. “Our team is very confident and we are all looking forward to a successful season.”

The Raiders were held to five runs in the double header, but left a number of runners on base. The defense of UNF got into several jams throughout the night, but continued to fight out of them with minimum runs scored. At one point Seminole State had the bases loaded with just one out, and the Ospreys managed to get out of the inning only surrendering one run off an error.

At one point the bases were loaded for Seminole State, with just one out, and the Lady Ospreys only gave up one run off of an infield error. Although the team was victorious in both matchups, the coach of the UNF softball team was not satisfied.

“I was a little bit disappointed in the first game,” said head coach Marcie Hickey. “We relaxed and let them come back into the game instead of having that killer instinct and putting them away when they were down.”

Alyson Bailey, a senior studying Community Health, is confident in her teammate’s ability and cohesiveness with each other.

“During Fall Ball we are all beginning to come together as a team,” Alyson said. “We have a lot of things to work on but we have the work ethic to get better overall as a team.”