Feb. 17, 2012
AUBURN, Ala. – In a marathon game, the No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide came out on top of No. 20 Georgia Tech softball, 12-9. The nine runs tallied against Alabama were the most Tech has scored in 16 meetings with the Crimson Tide.
Tech drops to 6-2 on the season while Alabama remains perfect at 5-0 in 2012. The Yellow Jackets also drop to 3-13 in the all-time series with Alabama.
Lindsay Anderson threw nearly 200 pitches in the game that lasted three hours and 20 minutes. Anderson went the distance for Tech, but also gave up eight walks on the day, which in the end was the difference maker.
Tech was led by Alysha Rudnik who was 3-for-4 on the day with a run scored, while six different Jackets tallied an RBI during the game.
After Alabama jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Tech responded in the bottom half of the frame with two runs of its own on an RBI single by Hope Rush and a single up the middle that the middle infielders couldn’t handle by Kate Kuzma.
Alabama put up five runs in the top of the second thanks in part to three walks, three hits and a wild pitch. Tech notched another run in the bottom half of the frame using the sacrifice hit to score. Caroline Hilton started things off with a single to center and was replaced on the basepaths by Kelly Delashmit . Delashmit moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chelsie Thomas, to third on a single up the middle by Ashley Thomas and crossed the plate on a sac fly to left field by Kelsi Weseman.
Anderson sent Alabama back to the dugout with out any runs in the top of the third, and in the bottom, Tech added four runs to the scoreboard to retake the lead. Tech notched four of its 13 hits in the inning and took advantage of a throwing error to jump back into the lead.
Tech kept control of things until a solo shot to deep center by Kaila Hunt evened things up at seven-all. Alabama tacked on two more runs in the sixth for a 9-7 lead and added another three in the top of the seventh to break open the game.
Tech wouldn’t go down without a fight and added another two runs to its total in the final half inning of the game as Hayley Downs and Katelyn Kates came across the plate for the Jackets, but it wasn’t enough.
Tech will return to action against Oklahoma in the second part of the day one doubleheader.
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
