ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Florida A&M held off a late charge by Bethune-Cookman to advance to its third straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball Championship game with a 2-1 victory on Friday at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.
Florida A&M (26-27) will play at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the 2016 MEAC Championship game, while Bethune-Cookman falls into the elimination bracket and will meet the winner of Delaware State/Savannah State at 6 tonight.
After two scoreless innings, the Lady Rattlers broke the tie with a run in the top of third as Raven Mosely singled to right with two outs and Jessica Nathan tripled to left, giving Florida A&M a 1-0 advantage.
The Lady Rattlers added to the lead in the sixth as Tashayla Irvis singled up the middle and came in to score on Alexis Day’s single.
Bethune-Cookman (19-31) cut the deficit in half with a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Kenya Pereira struck out Iesha Waters with the tying run on third to end the game.
Pereira fanned four and scattered six hits and one unearned run in seven innings to pick up her 15th victory of the season.
Nathan paced the Florida A&M offensive with two of the team’s six hits.
Sabrina Anguiano took the loss for the Lady Wildcats. She gave up two runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
Annie Bakenhus led the way offensively for Bethune-Cookman with two hits.