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Fort Myers, Fla. – The No. 3-seeded Kennesaw State softball used strong hitting and pitching  to collect a 7-1 win over No. 5 Jacksonville in an elimination game on Thursday (May 7) to remain alive in the 2015 Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament at the FGCU Softball Complex. The win was the Owls first in the A-Sun Tournament since 2012.

The Owls (32-18) advance on in the tournament and will face No. 6 seed Stetson (29-19), which posted a 5-4 victory over No. 4 North Florida on Thursday. The two teams will play an elimination game at 3 p.m. (ET) that will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with live stats available here.

"Today was a total team effort," head coach Tori Acheson said. "Paige (Mathews) threw a great game. Our defense made some big plays and we got some big hits at the right time. It feels great to get a win over a very scrappy Jacksonville team who fought like crazy." 
 
Courtney Sutter hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning to give the Owls a 2-0 lead.
  
"The turning point came early today when our defense stepped up in the first inning to get us out of a jam and then our offense got us on the board with Courtney's two-run home run," Acheson said.

After allowing the first two runners to reach base, Mathews (13-5) worked out of a second and third one-out jam in the first inning.
 
The Owls added three runs in the bottom of the third inning, taking advantage of a Jacksonville (28-28) error, run scoring hits by Taylor Denton and Megan Veringa, and a sacrifice fly by Hillary Kartman that increased Kennesaw State's lead to 5-0.
 
After the Dolphins scored their lone run in the top of the fifth, the Owls answered with single runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings. Denton, who reached on a fielder's choice and stole second, scored on a throwing error in the fifth.
 
Emily Bishop capped the day's scoring with a leadoff home run in the sixth inning to push the Owls' lead to 7-1.
 
Matthews scattered eight hits, allowed one run and struck out six in in a complete-game effort.
 
 "We survive to play again tomorrow (Friday) and I am confident we will come out swinging," Acheson said.
 
 Denton had two hits and scored twice to lead an eight-hit attack by Kennesaw State. Courtney Sutter also had a productive day with two RBI and two runs scored.
 
Victoria Brown (18-9) suffered the loss for Stetson.  
 
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