April 7, 2012
ATLANTA – Led by Hope Rush and Kelsi Weseman, the Georgia Tech softball team earned the Saturday sweep of Maryland with a 6-1 game one victory and 9-6 game two comeback win.
Tech (26-16, 8-3 ACC) remained perfect over Maryland (10-16, 0-5) in the Sharon Perkinsera improving to 16-0 against the Terps. The Yellow Jackets are on a 19-game win-streak over Maryland with their last loss coming at Maryland on April 29, 2005, a 2-1 defeat. Tech’s last loss at home to Maryland came on March 21, 2000.
Both Rush and Weseman were 2-for-3 on the day. Rush reached base seven times over the two games as she was walked three times and hit by a pitch twice. In her three official at bats she tallied four RBIs and a run. Weseman earned four free passes on the day to go along with her two hits, scoring three runs and driving in two.
Rush also earned the game one victory throwing all seven innings while allowing five hits and just one earned run and striking out seven. Kylie Kleinschmidttabbed her fourth career victory in game two, also going the distance. Kleinschmidt allowed six Maryland hits, six runs and struck out five, getting three Terps to go down looking.
Tech easily took game one using eight hits to score six runs. Tech’s second hit of the game by Rush, drove in the Jackets’ first run of the game as Kelsi Wesemancame around to score from second on a single to center.
The Jackets added to their lead in the second putting two more runs on the board. Shannon Bear started things off taking the first pitch of the inning and sending it over the left field wall for her sixth homer of the year. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Chelsie Thomascame home on a wild pitch to bring Tech’s lead to 3-0.
Maryland notched its lone run of the game in the top of the third inning, but the Jackets got that run back in the fifth. Danielle Dike started things off with a single up the middle and was replaced on the bases by Kelly Delashmit. Delashmit move to second on a walk to Bear, to third on a Hayley Downs sac bunt and home on an RBI groundout by pinch hitter Kate Kuzmato bring Tech’s lead to 4-1.
A couple more runs were earned in the sixth inning. First, Alysha Rudnik blasted a shot over the right field wall for her seventh home run of the year and next, pinch runner Kaitlin Katesused her speed to score on another wild pitch to give Tech the 6-1 lead and victory.
In game two, Maryland jumped out to a five-run lead putting two on the board in the first inning and a three-run homer to take its first lead of the ACC series. Tech responded in the bottom half of the second with a five-run inning to even things up at five-all. The inning was highlighted by a bases clearing double to centerfield by Rush which put three more runs on the board and cut Maryland’s lead to one. Rush came around to score from second on the next pitch as Bear ripped on into right center to tie the game up.
Tech took its first lead of the game in the fourth inning on a Weseman homer to left field. But Maryland wouldn’t go away and evened things up at six-all on a RBI double to left center by Shannon Bustillos.
The Tech bats remained hot and the Jackets put three on the board in the bottom of the fifth to get back on top and earn the victory. The Jackets batted around scoring three runs on three hits for the 9-6 advantage and victory.
Tech is back in action with the final game of the weekend series with Maryland on Sunday, April 8 at 2 p.m. The Jackets will try and earn their third ACC series sweep of the season on “Pink Day” in front of a national audience live on ESPNU.
Keep up to date with the Georgia Tech Softball team all season long at www.RamblinWreck.com as well as twitter.com/GaTechSoftball and facebook.com/GTSoftball
