April 26, 2009
ATLANTA – A walk-off home run by redshirt junior Jen Yee in the bottom of the seventh inning gave the No. 20 Georgia Tech softball team (38-13, 15-3 ACC) a 3-2 win Sunday afternoon at Mewborn Field and helped complete a series sweep over No. 12 North Carolina (44-10, 15-5). The Yellow Jackets now control their own destiny in the ACC and can clinch the regular season title by winning two games next weekend at Maryland.
Sophomore Kristen Adkins (20-7) picked up her 20th win of the season as she pitched the complete-game for Tech. She scattered four hits, walked four and did not strike out a batter. This is the second straight series sweep for Georgia Tech as the Jackets have won all six ACC series’ so far this season and nine in a row dating back to last year.
Georgia Tech got on the scoreboard with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. After missing a home run by inches down the right-field line, freshman Kelsi Weseman drew a two-out walk. She came around to score one batter later when senior Whitney Haller ripped a double into the gap in left-center field. On the throw home, UNC third baseman Alyssa Francona threw the ball into the stands and Haller was awarded home giving the Yellow Jackets an early 2-0 lead.
The Tar Heels got one of the runs back in the top of the second inning. After Adkins walked a pair of two-out batters, UNC pitcher Lisa Norris helped herself out when she singled to left field making it a 2-1 game. Adkins then got Francona to ground out and end the inning with two runners on.
It was still a 2-1 game in the fourth when the Tar Heels threatened to at least tie the game. A leadoff single and then a walk put two on with just one out, but Adkins was able to escape the inning on a couple of line drive outs.
With Norris on cruise control in the circle for the Tar Heels, a Danielle Spaulding solo home run to right-center field tied the game with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. Through the first four innings, the Yellow Jackets still had just one hit off Norris, the Haller first-inning double.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Jackets had a great chance to score as well. Sophomore Christy Jones got it going with a one-out single and after redshirt junior Jen Yee walked and Weseman was hit by a pitch, the bases were loaded for Haller. On a 1-2 pitch, Norris uncorked a wild pitch to the back-stop, but Jones was thrown out at home trying to score and Norris was out of the jam.
Then in the bottom of the sixth inning Tech put its first two batters on after a walk and a hit batsman but Norris got out of the jam. With two on and two outs, sophomore Caroline Hilton hit a smash up the middle that Norris was able to knock down with her glove and throw out Hilton ending the threat.
Adkins retired the Tar Heels in order in the top of the seventh inning to set up Yee’s dramatics. It was her 10th home run of the season.
The Yellow Jackets will close out the regular season next weekend with a three-game ACC series at Maryland. Georgia Tech and Maryland will play a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 2 at 1 p.m. and then wrap up the regular season with game three of the series Sunday, May 3, also at 1 p.m. Live audio and stats for all three games will be available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
