May 15, 2010
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Freshman Hope Rush tossed her third no-hitter of the season and added a two-run home run as the No. 7/7 Georgia Tech Softball team (48-9) beat North Carolina (40-18), 8-0 in five innings, Saturday in the semifinals of the ACC Softball Tournament at Tech Softball Park.
The Yellow Jackets will now face Florida State in the championship game tomorrow at 1 p.m. FSU scored four runs in the seventh inning today to come from behind and beat Virginia Tech, 5-3. Sunday’s championship game will air live on the ACC’s Regional Sports Networks, including SportSouth in the state of Georgia. Live audio and stats for all Georgia Tech games is available at www.RamblinWreck.com.
The no-hitter for Rush was her second consecutive against UNC and third of her career. She did not strike out a batter and walked just one as she retired the final eight UNC hitters she faced. 2010 ACC Pitcher of the Year Danielle Spaulding came into the game with a 1.05 ERA, but saw that balloon up to 1.59 as she was charged with eight earned runs.
Tech hit three home runs in the game, including two in a four-run first inning. After sophomore Kate Kuzma was hit by a pitch, sophomore Kelsi Weseman ripped a 3-2 pitch over the fence in right-center field for her 12th home run of the season to put Tech up 2-0. Later in the inning, Spaulding walked junior Kristine Priebe and then Rush hit her 20th home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field which gave the Jackets a 4-0 lead.
Spaulding settled down after that first inning as she racked up 11 strikeouts on the day. Tech eventually wore her down and plated four more runs in the fifth inning to enforce their second straight run-rule in the ACC Tournament. Two of the strikeouts for Spaulding came against redshirt senior Jen Yee, but she did walk once and has now reached base in all 57 games this season.
Priebe had a RBI single in that fifth inning, while the big blow was a pinch hit, three-run homer off the bat of freshman Caitlin Jordan. For Jordan, it was her seventh round-tripper of the year.
