Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 DAYTONA BEACH – For the first time this season and in Head Coach Mark Skapin's tenure, Polk State Softball is in the win column. The Eagles bounced back from a heartbreaking loss in the first game of a doubleheader to blank Daytona State College in the nightcap on Thursday night, 6-0.

Once a student at Daytona State, pitcher Kyra Ward was the story for the Eagles. Ward tossed a 2-hit shutout while walking one and hitting two. Ward struck out just one but was the beneficiary of a solid defensive effort.

"Kyra had them off-balance throughout the night," Skapin said. "The defense made some great plays. I'm incredibly proud of them for battling through injuries, finding a way to contribute, and for everyone pitching in to get a clean game two win."

The Eagles (1-3) got the scoring started in the second game with a pair of runs in the first behind patient at-bats and solid base-running. Chelsi Rae' Hebert and Kanitria Antenor each scored in the opening frame. Polk State blew things open with four runs in the fifth.

Alma Fernandez laced a 2-run double down the right-field line to score Hebert and Antenor and push the lead to 4-0 in the fifth. Fernandez and Jillian Hudson would score later in the inning. Ward and the defense did the rest.

The Eagles showed resiliency after dropping the opening game in extra innings, 4-3. Trailing 2-0, Polk State scored runs in the sixth, seventh, and eighth to take the lead before surrendering two runs in the bottom of the eighth to lose in walk-off fashion.

After a sacrifice fly by Suheily Mercado got the Eagles on the board in the sixth, a throwing error allowed Kaitlynn Nieves to score the tying run with two outs in the seventh. In the eighth, Antenor, the placed runner, scored after another error on a bunt back to the pitcher by Fernandez.

Up 3-2, Polk State was inches away from wrapping up the victory in the bottom half of the inning. Daytona State's Jaelyn Lockhart lined one at Hudson, the Polk State first baseman, for what would have been a game-ending double play, but she was unable to corral the liner and the tying run scored. Pitcher Baileigh Herrera, who had worked four straight scoreless innings, then hit Sky Ramos with the bases loaded to force in the winning run.

"They came out very aggressive after dropping a heartbreaker in the last inning," Skapin said of his team's resiliency. "They were determined not to let it happen again."

Polk State's winning streak will last for at least another week. The Eagles' doubleheader with Eastern Florida State College, set for Saturday, has been postponed until March 14. Up next is a trip to St. Thomas University to take on its JV team on Feb. 17.