WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (February 16, 2020) – Two days after winning its first two games of the 2020 RussMatt Solftball NAIA Invitational at the Polk State Diamond Plex, including a narrow 3-2 walk off win over Roosevelt University, the Webber International University softball team returned to Winter Haven, Florida, to take down Roosevelt two more times. The Warriors won by scores of 9-1 in six innings in game one before taking game number two 4-2 on the first career complete game by Dariyen Moss.

With the two wins and the four-game sweep of the RussMatt Invitational, Webber softball is now 6-0 to start its second season under Head Coach Kristy Burton.

"Today was two great team wins," said Burton. "It's always hard to beat a team three times in a year so getting the three-game sweep over Roosevelt was a big step forward for our program. Timely hitting proved to be an asset for us this weekend, and our pitchers and defense kept us locked in throughout the day and gave us an opportunity to control the tempo. We were excited to see the bats coming alive and to watch the girls have amazing energy in our dugout. This team is very hungry yet humble, and is willing to do what's needed to represent Webber softball."

Making her first start of the season and second of her career, Moss (1-0) pitched all seven innings in the final game of the weekend as she allowed eight hits and two total runs, but only one earned run.

Moss did a great job of pitching to contact and letting her defense help her work out of trouble as she stranded two runners on base in both of the first two innings, left the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and again left two runners on in the sixth before getting out of the seventh facing a bases loaded jam with only one out and a three-run lead.

13 of the outs recorded by Moss were fly outs while seven were on the ground.

Offensively, the Warriors' bats gave Moss a 2-0 lead to work with after two innings as Kaitlin Cockcroft led off the bottom of the first with a triple down the right field line before scoring two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Mary-Margaret Maggard, and then in the bottom of the second Cassidy Roberts led off with a single before coming around to score three batters later on a base hit up the middle by Blakeleigh Boyett.

Then, after a solo home run by the Roosevelt in the top of the fifth cut its deficit in half, the Webber offense answered in the bottom half of the fifth with two more runs to double its scoring total thanks to a two-RBI single to center by Victoria Atkinson scoring Cockcroft and Daisy Riggleman.

In the first game starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday, it was mostly all about the offense for the Warriors as Webber had nine runs on seven hits and had solo home runs both from Maggard in the first inning to make it 1-0 and then from Atkinson in the third to make the score 4-0.

Sabrina Hebding (1-0) made her first appearance of the season and combined with Emma Maitland to limit the Lakers to five hits and one run, which scored via a bases loaded walk to with outs in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 4-1 in favor of the Warriors.

Webber then added five more runs between the top of the fifth and the top of the sixth to ultimately win the game by run rule after six innings.

In the first game on Sunday, Cockcroft finished 2-for-3 at the plate while Maggard was 2-for-4 with two runs, and then in game two Cockcroft and Atkinson were both 2-for-3 as Cockcroft finished with four hits and three runs on the day.

Next up for Webber softball will be the Bear Creek Tournament, hosted by the University of the Cumberlands (Ky.) in Oneida, Tennessee. On Saturday, February 22, Webber will battle Taylor University at 2 p.m. and Cumberlands at 4 p.m. before coming back on Sunday, February 23, to play Lawrence Tech (Mich.) at 10 a.m. followed by Thomas More University at 2 p.m.