May 20, 2000

LOS ANGELES - The No. 24 Florida State softball team (51-26) secured a rematch with No. 3 UCLA in the championship game of the Los Angeles regional with a 4-2 victory over No. 15 Iowa (46-15), Saturday afternoon at Easton Stadium on the UCLA campus. FSU will face the Bruins at 3:30 p.m. (EST) on Sunday, May 21st. The Tribe will have to beat UCLA twice as the Bruins have gone undefeated in the double-elimination tourney.

The Lady Seminoles scored two runs in each of the third and fourth innings to take a 4-0 lead over the Iowa Hawkeyes. Andi Lyons led off the third with a walk and was called safe at second on a fielder's choice by Teresa Edenfield. With two out and two out, Serita Brooks ripped a triple to deep center field to score Lyons and Edenfield. In the fourth, Brandi Stuart and Becky Wallace had back-to-back base hits to lead off the inning. Iowa catcher Katy Jendrzejewski made a throwing error as Stuart and Wallace recorded a double steal. Stuart went home on the error while Wallace advanced to third. Felicia Williams came in to pinch-run for Wallace and she scored on a single to left field by Lyons.

The Hawkeyes had just one hit and one player in scoring position through the first three innings. In the fourth, however, Iowa put together a little run with two consecutive bunt singles by Alicia Gerlach and Jessica Bashor. With runners on second and third, thanks to steals, and nobody out, Iowa pitcher Kristi Hanks, who relieved starter Kelly Zeilstra in the fourth inning, grounded out to shortstop Natalie Bennett, scoring one run. But two straight outs would strand the other Hawkeye runner and the score remained 4-1 in FSU's favor.

Iowa took advantage of an FSU error to score another run in the sixth inning. FSU left fielder Teresa Edenfield errored on a fly ball by Gerlach to lead off the inning. Gerlach went to second on the play and advanced to third on a ground out by Bashor. Hanks recorded her second RBI of the game with a double to right field, but she would be left on the basepaths.

Iowa didn't go down without a fight. In the seventh, the Hawkeyes had two on with one out when Becky Brock turned a solid double play to end the game.

Malerich earned her 35th victory, tying her with Toni Gutierrez (1992) for most victories in a season on the FSU charts. Brooks' triple gave her her 98th hit of the year - tying the single-season mark for hits set by Danielle Cox in 1999. Zeilstra got the loss for Iowa and fell to 24-7. Hanks was awesome in relief, allowing just two hits while striking out six in four innings on the mound for the Hawkeyes.

"Obviously I am proud of how the team bounced back after the loss to UCLA," FSU's Dr. JoAnne Graf said. "We got another great performance by Leslie (Malerich) and some key hits by Serita (Brooks) and Andi (Lyons). We wanted another shot at UCLA and now we've earned it. Tomorrow's game should be a good one, since we've had a chance to play them once in the tournament. Once again, we look forward to the challenge."

               123	456	7	R   H   E
FLORIDA STATE  002	200	0 -	4   6   2
IOWA           000	101	0 -	2   6   2

WP: Leslie Malerich (35-14), LP: Kelly Zeilstra (24-7)