Feb. 10, 2012
TEMPE, Ariz. – A six run second inning helped the No. 23 Georgia Tech softball team hold off Oregon State in its season opener, Friday. The Yellow Jackets improve to 1-0 on the year and hand Oregon State, who won its first two games by a combined 38-8 score, its first loss of the season (2-1).
Tech improves to 2-1 all-time against the Beavers and head coach Sharon Perkins remains undefeated (2-0) against OSU during her tenure at Georgia Tech.
Lindsey Anderson earned the win for Tech striking out five batters in six innings of work while Hope Rush came into the game in the sixth to earn the save, just the third of her career.
After Oregon State’s first two runners came around to score in the top of the first, the Jackets responded with a six-run bottom of the second capped off by a pinch-hit grandslam by Shannon Bear, the first of her career, to put the Jackets on top.
After Hope Rush and Kate Kuzma began things with singles, Danielle Dike was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Perkins’ move to call Bear into the game was a favorable one as the ball sailed out over leftfield for the 4-2 lead. Later in the inning, Kelsi Weseman also hit one out, this time over the centerfield wall to give Tech a 6-2 lead.
Oregon State inched its way back into the game with a solo homer in the third, and a couple more runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 6-5 game after three and a half innings, but the Jackets put another run up on the board in the bottom half of the frame to give themselves more of a cushion. Weseman started the inning off with a walk, moved up to second on a single to right by Rush and came across to score on a double by Kuzma.
Tech added another run in the fifth for an 8-5 lead, but the Beavers responded with a couple in the top of the sixth to bring it back to a one-run game.
Kuzma got on base for the third time in the game in the bottom half of the sixth after getting hit by a pitch. After the OSU reliever Marina Demore struck out the next two batters, Kuzma used a wild pitch to move up to second and scored what would end up being the game winner on a single to left by freshman Chelsie Thomas.
A solo shot in the top of the sixth by Lea Cavestany prompted a pitching change by Perkins and Rush came in to shut things down and ended the game with an OSU player looking at a called third strike.
Three Jackets had multi-hit games on the day as Ashley Thomas, Rush and Kate Kuzma notched two hits each.
The Jackets will return to the diamond at 4 p.m. ET Friday when they take on yet another Pac-12 opponent in Arizona.
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
