DELAND, Fla. (April 1, 2007) - After being the only team in the Atlantic Sun to sweep Stetson a year ago, the conference preseason favorite got revenge on Sunday as they swept ETSU, 5-2 and 5-0 at Patricia Wilson Field.

The Bucs have dropped four straight and fall to 16-20, 3-3 in the Atlantic Sun, while Stetson improved to 29-12, 4-2 after winning its third straight conference game.

The Hatters struck first in game one when a two-out RBI double by Lindsay Wightman drove in Nicole Forbes from second, but Stetson was being a little too greedy on the base paths as ETSU's Katy Jett (Talbot, Tenn.) found Marissa Hardy (Rocklin, Calif.) for the cutoff and she fired a strike home to nail Andrea Migliori out at the plate for the final out of the inning.

After being held scoreless in the first two innings, the Bucs tied the game at one, when Hardy led off the third by belting her first collegiate home run off Stetson's Amanda Lindsey. The Bucs looked to have something brewing later in the inning when Stephanie Gaynord (Manassas, Va.) and Jessie Hackworth (Clinton, Tenn.) each singled, but with Gaynord on third and Hackworth on second, Mary Catherine Vercoe (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) ended the threat by grounding out to third.

Stetson broke the tie in the bottom half of the inning when Wightman's sacrifice fly drove in Fobres, making it a 2-1 ballgame.

The Bucs rallied again in the fourth when Amanda Haverman (Kirkwood, Mo.) began the inning with a single, which led to Cheniece Cason (Moreno Valley, Calif.) to run for Haverman. Cason's speed paid big dividends for the Bucs as she stole second, and then scored on Briana Knight's (Brier, Wash.) single. With the game tied for the second time, ETSU looked to take its first lead of the day. Everything was going the right way for the Bucs thanks to a Hardy walk and Kate Powell's (Johnson City) single; however, with the bases loaded and only one out the big bats of Gaynord and Jett could not come through as they ended the inning with back-to-back infield flies. 

Despite battling back to tie the game two separate times, a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth proved to be the difference maker in game one. After Vercoe walked Erica Demers to begin the inning, she forced the next two Stetson hitters to tap the ball right back to her, advancing Demers to third. With two outs and the go-ahead run at third, Sherrrel Fountain singled in the game-winning run, putting the Hatters up, 3-2. The Hatters would add two more runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 5-2.

The Bucs would not go down without a fight as the first three ETSU batters reached base in the seventh, but Stetson's Erica Demers (12-4) worked out of the jam by getting Vercoe to strike out, and Haverman ended the game by hitting into a double play. Vercoe dropped to 8-9 as she allowed five runs (three earned) on seven hits in six innings.

Leadoff walks continued to haunt ETSU in game two, as Darci Gilbert (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) walked Sherrel Fountain in the first and she came around to score on Lindsay Wightman's RBI single. Gilbert quickly settled down after allowing the single by retiring 10 of the next 11 Hatter hitters she faced. Unfortunately, Stetson's Heather Colding kept the Bucs hitless until back-to-back two-out singles by Hackworth and Vercoe ended her no-hit bid in the fourth. However, both runners were left stranded after Haverman fouled out to left.

Stetson broke open the game in the fifth as they scored four unearned runs as Hackworth's error with two outs prolonged the inning for the Hatters. Gilbert could not work out of the jam as the Hatters Andrea Migliori's triple drove in the first two runs of the inning, and a double on the very next play by Blythe Golden scored Migliori, leading to Gilbert's departure. Hardy entered in relief and issued a run scoring single to Wightman, but she finally got Katie Lawrence out on strikes to end the inning.

Just like in the first game, the Bucs fought hard until the end as they loaded the bases in the seventh. Hackworth and Vercoe led off the inning with singles and after Haverman popped up to short, Knight walked to load the bases; however, ETSU could not push any runs across the plate as Colding got the final two outs to end any threat.

Gilbert suffered the loss (7-10), despite allowing one earned run in 4.2 innings of work, while Colding scattered only four hits en route to her second shutout of the season.

ETSU will enjoy some much needed time off after playing eight games over a six day span. The Bucs will return to action on Friday, April 6, when they host Belmont at 2 p.m.