Junior pitchers, Amanda Wilson and Kylee Hanson, powered Florida Atlantic softball to its seventh straight win by allowing a combined one run in three games against Marshall University.

Head coach Joan Joyce gave Hanson the nod in the first and last games of the series. She allowed one run on five hits in 13 innings. She struck out 15 batters.

Wilson allowed three hits in a shutout in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, which the Owls won in five innings.

“Amanda will get the job done, there’s no doubt about that,” Joyce said.

FAU (36-7, 13-2 C-USA) outscored the Thundering Herd (22-23, 6-9 C-USA) 22-1 in the series.

“We played good defense, we hit the ball well, we pitched the ball well,” Joyce said.

Senior third baseman Carnesha Thompson and sophomore shortstop Emily Lochten hit two home runs each over the weekend, including a pair in back-to-back fashion on Sunday.

Thompson went 5-for-7, with five runs and seven RBIs.

The Owls will stay in Boca Raton to take on  Florida Gulf Coast University in a doubleheader on Wednesday, April 20. The first game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.

They will then visit Conference USA’s second place team, the Charlotte 49ers, next weekend.

“There is no breathing space,” Joyce said. “We’ll go up and try to take care of business against them.”

Here’s a recap of each game:

Game One: Marshall 1, FAU 9 (6)

Thompson knocked in senior center fielder Christina Martinez in the first inning to start the scoring. Lochten then hit her first home run of the weekend as her Owls jumped out to an early 3-0 lead.

Marshall senior right fielder Raquel Escareno answered in the top half of the second inning with a home run off Hanson. That run would be the last the Thundering Herd scored over the weekend.

Florida Atlantic scored five more runs in the fifth inning, two of which came on a Thompson triple. Freshman left fielder Madisyn Palmer ended the game via the mercy rule when she scored the Owls ninth run in the sixth inning after stealing third base and crossing home on an error.

Game Two: Marshall 0, FAU 8 (5)

First inning scoring helped FAU jump out to another early lead against Marshall.

Sophomore Tatum Buckley knocked in the first two runs with a two-out RBI single. Junior designated player Sarah Bencivenga followed with a single of her own before scoring the fifth run of the inning on a single by Palmer.

The scoring continued in the second inning when Thompson hit a two-run home run over the left-field fence.

One run away from their second straight mercy-rule ending, the Owls senior second baseman Melissa Martinez flied out to right field. Her sister tagged up from third base and scored on the out.

Game Three: Marshall 0, FAU 5

The Owls failed to score a first inning run on Sunday, but they scored at least one run in each of the following four innings.

Melissa Martinez lined a ball over the center field fence in the second inning for the first run of the game. After FAU scored one run in each of the following two innings, Thompson and Lochten hit back-to-back home runs to put the Owls up five.

Hanson only needed the one early run to collect her 19th win of the season.

Brendan Feeney is the sports editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @feeney42.