The Santa Fe Saints survived a final inning rally by Eastern Florida State College to post a 7-6 win in game two of a doubleheader Thursday afternoon after dropping the opener 5-3.

Tihana Zupanic (1-2) started and pitched into the seventh inning of the nightcap to get the win, but it took a strong closing effort by Jamie Adams to seal the deal. It was Adam's first save of the season.

"Ti threw six strong innings and Jamie did what she had to do and finished it off," said SF head coach Lindsay Fico.

The Saints took control early, scoring two runs in the first and two more in the third, but it took a three-run homerun by Dontaysha Gobourne to get the win.

"Donnie's three-run homerun proved to be extremely important," said Fico. "She had a great day at the plate in both games."

Playing their fourth game in less than 24 hours, Fico made some changes to the lineup in game two.

"We switched up the lineup to play more small ball," said Fico. "The team did a great job of accepting new roles to get us the win. Savana Terry looked great behind the plate."

EFSC (5-11) took an early lead in the opener, scoring four runs in the opening frame and the Saints could not dig themselves out of the hole, falling 5-3.

"Gabi Mathre settled in after the first inning and kept them off balance the rest of the way, but we couldn't get the hits we needed to push across enough runs."

Mathe (6-5) took the loss in the first game but had a great day at the plate with five hits in six official at-bats. Sophia Negron had three hits on the day as did  Gobourne including her third homerun of the year.

SF (8-11) have won four of their last five games and will enjoy the weekend off before hosting State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota for a doubleheader next Tuesday with the first game beginning at 2 p.m.

For all SF Athletics schedules, stats and more visit santafesaints.com.

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