March 27, 2005
ATLANTA – Senior Jessica Sallinger (17-5) was the story again for No. 21 Georgia Tech (32-7, 5-1 ACC) as she took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, before allowing a base hit with two outs, finishing with a complete-game one-hit shutout to lead the Yellow Jackets to a 5-0 victory over No. 24 Florida State (20-15, 3-5 ACC) at Glenn Field on Sunday afternoon.
Sallinger finished with her 11th complete-game shutout of the season, fourth straight, and has not allowed an earned run in 45 2/3 innings pitched. The Kennesaw, Ga., native has not allowed a run in 28 2/3 straight innings and is now eighth all-time in the NCAA with 1,244 career strikeouts.
Sophomores Caitlin Lever and Sarah Wood each drove in two runs for the Jackets to lead the offensive attack. Junior Amy Hosier also drove in a run for Tech.
The Jackets put runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the first inning, but failed to push a run across. Freshman Aileen Morales led off the inning with a double off the left field fence and advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Lever followed with a walk and stole second base. Junior Christine Sheridan gave Tech the best opportunity to score as she lined one right at the third baseman. FSU pitcher Tiffany McDonald got out of the jam with an infield pop out and a strikeout to end the threat.
Tech put runners in scoring position again in the second inning with consecutive walks with two outs by freshman Kacey Ivey and senior Kirin Kumar, but was turned away again by a strikeout by McDonald.
The Jackets finally broke through in the third inning as Wood drove in Lever and junior Amy Hosier on a base hit to left field to put Tech ahead, 2-0.
The Yellow Jackets continued to put runners in scoring position as junior Lauren Schlechte singled up the middle to start the fourth inning and sophomore Kristina Hull came in to pinch run. After a fly out, Hull moved over to second base on a ground out by Kumar to give Tech a runner in scoring position for the fourth straight inning. The Jackets could not capitalize as McDonald tallied the final out of the inning to advance the game to the fifth inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Sheridan doubled to left field with one out to give the Jackets a runner in scoring position for the fifth straight inning. Hosier then singled to left field to plate Sheridan and advanced to second on the throw to the plate. The Seminoles picked up the second out of the inning on throw at the plate as Hosier tried to score from second base on an error by the FSU second baseman that ricocheted to the shortstop and she made a perfect throw to home plate to record the out. McDonald tallied a strikeout to end the inning for FSU.
Ivey and Kumar had consecutive base hits with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning and Lever doubled to left-center field to put Tech ahead 5-0 as the game moved to the seventh inning.
With two outs in the seventh inning, FSU’s LaShaun Davis singled to left field to break up Sallinger’s no-hit bid and put Seminoles on first and second. Sallinger recorded her 11th strikeout of the game to end the game and give Tech the sweep over FSU.
Tech will travel to Chattanooga, Tenn., on March 30, for a non-conference doubleheader against the Lady Mocs.
-GT SOFTBALL-
