CLAIRMONT, Fla. – It was a great morning to be a Lady Baron softball player, as Franciscan won its first game since 2011 with a dramatic 4-3 win over Anna Maria College. FUS won on a walk-off steal of home plate off of an Anna Maria wild pitch.

The Lady Barons weren't able to continue the momentum against Stevenson University, losing 21-0, but the streak-breaking win carried the emotion of the day.

"It was a long time coming so it was great to finally get one," second year head coach Jen Parker said. "They had their heads in that game and played really smart. They were just really together."

Early on it was looking like another loss for Franciscan as FUS went down 3-0 after the first three innings. Then pitcher Ashley Ruttencutter got on base and Franciscan started to hit.

A double from freshman catcher Kim Muscat brought Ruttencutter home, scoring the Lady Baron's first run of the game. Then junior first baseman Katrina Fabian hit a deep fly that just stayed inside the fence but rattled around long enough to get Muscat and Fabian home for game-tying inside-the-park home run.

"Katrina had one the other night that she thought it was over the fence and she kind of let up in running," Parker said. "So I told her 'run like it's a liner up the middle.' So for that inside-the-park home run she was running her tail off."

Fabian's hustle and two more solid defensive innings put the FUS women in a position they weren't accustom to: entering the bottom of the final inning with a chance to win.

"There was a whole lot of energy in that dugout," Parker said. "It was definitely loud."

One of the team's veteran leaders, senior second baseman Rosemary Cassidy, handled the pressure perfectly getting herself on base as the potential game-winning run.

A single from sophomore Elizabeth Knab and clutch steal put Cassidy on third with two outs left. Then a fastball got past the Anna Maria catch, giving the Lady Baron's fastest base runner a chance to end the game.

"Their catcher was pretty good but as soon as it went by, Rosy was gone," Parker said. "She's so fast that there wasn't any doubt in my mind Rosy was going to score."

Cassidy crossed the bag without sliding, giving FUS their first win since April 30, 2011. Cassidy and Fabian's heroics were set by the best pitching performance of Ruttencutter's young career as a pitcher.

In just her fifth game as a collegiate pitcher, the junior struck out three batters, walked six and forced the opposing batters into 11 pop flies and six groundouts.

"She did amazing. I thought about taking her out in the fifth inner just to get her some rest and she told me she wanted to stay in," Parker said about her pitcher who only started pitching two weeks before the beginning of the season. "She just gets stronger and stronger. She's just embraced the pitch roll and I can't say anything but good things about her."

Parker said that overcoming the emotional energy of their win made it difficult for her team to keep the momentum going in their second game of the doubleheader. A couple early runs off of Ruttencutter's tired arm snowballed into difficult 21-0 loss.

The Lady Baron's were able to get some good hits in the later innings of the game but weren't able to bring base runners all the way home.

Franciscan will continue their spring tour with another doubleheader on March 14, playing Worcester Polytechnic Institute at 9 a.m. and Lancaster Bible College at 1 p.m.