The Florida A&M Lady Rattlers defeated the visiting Jackson State Tigers in dramatic fashion 6-5 with a walk-off single by Jane’a Mobley to earn their second consecutive home sweep over JSU. The Lady Rattlers improved to 9-10 overall, at the start of conference play where they now sit at 3-0.
“This is huge to get a sweep,” said Florida A&M head coach Camise Patterson. “It’s our first weekend, you know, we talk a lot about being a great team and a lot of times I tell them that great teams find a way to win even if they’re not playing their best softball, and I think that was us this weekend.”
The Lady Rattlers started the series on Friday with a 5-3 win to open the series. Saturday brought on the dramatics as the Lady Rattlers would need nine innings to ward off the Tigers, ending on a walk-off homerun by Nyah Morgan. Sunday’s game was another close game. FAMU jumped out to a 3-0 lead before JSU would come back and take the lead in the top of the fourth inning. FAMU would tie up the game in the bottom of the fourth and take a two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth. JSU would tie things up in the top of the sixth. The Lady Rattlers would then hold the Tigers scoreless for the top of the seventh before the walk-off winner in the final frame.
Patterson is in her first year as head coach at Florida A&M
For first-year head coach Patterson, it was encouraging to see her team continue to fight for victories. “This team is a very scrappy team. We’re going to find a way to win. To see it happen early in the season is awesome playing against a harder and tougher non-conference schedule. Having tougher pitching, having catchers that have even better arms what we see in the SWAC, is very important because we have that confidence that we can come out here and sweep a series like this,” Patterson added.
There is no rest for the Lady Rattlers who are on Spring Break this week. The Rattlers must prepare to face the B-CU Wildcats in Tallahassee. This is one of the most storied rivalries in the history of HBCU softball. While in the MEAC, Florida A&M and B-CU owned softball. The rivalry has been enhanced by the transcendence to the SWAC. The Rattlers and Wildcats will play Friday (3/17) at 5PM, Saturday (3/18) at 3PM and Sunday (3/19) at 1PM at the Lady Rattler Softball Complex.
Patterson knows that when they face B-CU it is always going to be a battle. “This (sweep) can be really huge, especially going into next week and we have our in-state rivals and overall rivals from Cookman,” said Patterson. “For us that’s always a big series, it’s always big games. So knowing that we just got three wins, should give us more confidence going into next weekend.”
