April 4, 2012
KENNESAW, Ga. – In a rain shortened game, the Georgia Tech softball team earned a 6-3 victory over Kennesaw State in front of a crowd of 528 at Baily Park on Lexi’s Night. The game was postponed in the middle of the sixth inning due to lightning and was called over a half an hour later because of rain.
With the victory, the Yellow Jackets improved to 24-16 on the season and swept the season series with the Owls (19-18).
Hope Rush earned her 16th win of the year pitching four innings, striking out two and only allowing four hits and three earned runs. Kylie Kleinschmidt pitched one inning for the Jackets to pick up her first career save.
Ashley Thomas was 3-for-4 on the day, just the home run shy of the cycle, scoring one of Tech’s six runs. Six different Tech athletes scored a run on the day.
The Jackets got on top first putting five runs on the board in the top of the third. Hayley Downs led off the inning with a base hit up the middle, stole second and moved to third on a chopper to short by Chelsie Thomas. Thomas’ speed caused the KSU shortstop to rush her throw and the speedster reached via the error. One pitch later she was on second via a stolen base and both Downs and Thomas moved up on a wild pitch as Downs scored the first run of the game.
Ashley Thomas reached via a fielder’s choice at they chose to throw home and ended up getting Chelsie at the plate. Ashley was thrown out at second one batter later.
With two outs on the board, and no one on base. Kelsi Weseman walked, Alysha Rudnik reached via a throwing error to first and both runners moved up an extra bag on the error. Hope Rush walked and with the bases loaded Shannon Bear got plunked to earn the RBI and keep the bases loaded. One pitch later, Danielle Dike was hit by a pitch putting the third run on the board. Karly Fullem blooped one into right field that scored Rush and Bear and gave the Jackets a 5-0 advantage.
KSU responded in the bottom half of the frame with three runs of its own via three hits, a single through the right side, a triple to right center and an infield single. But Tech put another run on the board as Ashley Thomas led the fourth off with a triple to left and scored one wild pitch later as Tech took the 6-3 lead and eventual win.
The Jackets will be back in action this weekend with an ACC series against Maryland. The Jackets and the Terps will square off at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday and will finish the weekend off with a 2 p.m. game live on ESPNU. Cara Capuano and Michele Smith will be on the call.
The Kennesaw State and Georgia Tech fans helped to raise over 1,500 dollars towards the Alexis Kaiser Foundation on the night.
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
