May 18, 2001

Tallahassee, FL - Leslie Malerich pitched six innings of no-hit ball to lead the 16th-ranked Florida State Seminoles to a 6-2 win over Florida in the second round of the 2001 NCAA Softball Regional in Tallahassee. The starter, who was recently named ACC Player of the Year, controlled the Gators (37-28) from the first pitch of the game striking out six batters, walking two and allowing just one earned run. FSU (56-10) scored five runs in the third and now advances to face Cal (51-15), undefeated in the regional, in a winner's bracket game at 3:30 pm tomorrow.

"We definitely brought the bats that we were missing last weekend and I'm really thankful for that," said head coach Dr. JoAnne Graf. "Any time we are able to score some runs it seems to relax our team and that makes all of our jobs easier. It was a well played game but we were able to jump on them in the third inning and that was the difference."

The Seminoles opened the scoring in the top of the third when they batted around scoring five runs and sending Gator starter Renise Landry to the bench. Senior Natalie Bennett started the inning by drawing a lead off walk and after Staci Brandon struck out, center fielder Serita Brooks drew another walk placing runners on first and second. Junior Kimmy Carter then lined a single down the left field line scoring Bennett with Carter's 32nd RBI of the year. Carter was followed by Jessica van der Linden who singled, knocking in her second RBI of the NCAA Tournament and putting FSU up 2-0. After UF replaced Landry with freshman Amanda Moore, Robyn Gauger sent a double deep into the hole between left and center field scoring Carter and van der Linden with FSU's third and fourth runs of the inning. The Seminoles added their fifth run on a sacrifice fly to right by Monique Marier plating Gauger and increasing Marier's team-leading RBI total to 40.

The Seminoles added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Staci Brandon knocked a two-out single into the gap in left center scoring Natalie Bennett who reached the play before on a fielder's choice. The double was the fourth of the season for Brandon and raised her RBI total for the year to 13.

Malerich, a junior from Merrillville, IN, started the game by striking out five of the first eight Gators she faced and set down 24 of the 29 batters in picking up her 24th win of the year and her second straight victory in the NCAA Tournament. She is now 2-0 with 12 strikeouts, two walks and a 1.00 ERA for the regional.

"I think I'm starting to get my endurance back," said Malerich. "When we score as many runs as we have in this tournament so far and come out with the great attitude we've had all weekend it is so easy to stay pumped up and continue to do well from the first inning to the last."

Florida State has won the first two games of its regional for the second year in a row and will now take on Cal Saturday, May 19 at 3:30 p.m. in a meeting between the last two undefeated teams left in the Tallahassee Regional. The Seminoles and Golden Bears have met four times with Cal holding a 4-0 edge in the series. FSU dropped two games to Cal at the Seminole Softball Complex last season by the scores of 1-0 and 1-0. For information on the Seminole softball team or the 2001 NCAA Tallahassee Regional, please visit www.seminoles.com.