ATLANTA (Mar. 13) – After a disappointing west-coast trip which saw the Georgia Tech softball team (12-15) win only one game in seven tries, the Yellow Jackets look to rebound this week with two doubleheaders.
The Yellow Jackets will host Indiana University (3-11) in a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the first meeting between the two schools. Saturday the team will be in Birmingham, Ala., to face Samford Univeristy (10-14) in a 2 p.m. EST doubleheader. This will be the 60th and 61st meetings between the two schools, with the Yellow Jackets leading the series, 35-24. Last season the teams met four times, with Samford winning three of those games.
“We struggled a bit out in California and had to deal with a lot of adversity playing with only nine players due to the flu and injuries,” said head coach Kate Madden. “I thought our performance was OK, but I still would have liked to have seen our team play better.
“We will be ready to face Indiana on Wednesday. They are a good team, but we should be able to come out strong for the game. Samford is a team that we play every year, and last year had success against us. Hopefully we’ll be able to turn that around this weekend.”
The Yellow Jackets are led by seniors Anne Knobbe (Brea, Calif.) and Lauren Schwartz (Atlanta, Ga.). Knobbe, who earned all-Tournament honors at the National Invitational Softball Tournament, leads the team in batting average (.459), RBI (31) and home runs (7). Last week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week, she currently leads the conference in batting average, RBI, home runs and doubles. Schwartz, the center fielder, has also been a steady player for Georgia Tech this season, ranking second on the team in batting avearge (.386) and RBI (10).
“Both Anne and Lauren continue to impress me with the season’s they are having,” said Madden. “My hope now is that some of their effort and performance will be contagious to the rest of our team.”
