May 15, 2004
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Senior Tara Knudsen went 3-for-4, with a home run and three runs batted in to lead No. 24 Georgia Tech (44-16) over Maryland (33-27), 6-4, in an elimination game at the ACC Tournament. The Yellow Jackets scored four runs in the fifth inning on four hits and ended the ballgame with 10 hits.
Senior Erin Voeltz (16-9) picked up the win for Tech in the circle. Voeltz tossed all seven innings, scattering four hits, four runs, three earned runs and struck out six on the afternoon.
UMD’s Casey Leiter led off the bottom of the first inning with a double to left field and moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt. Voeltz made a nice stab on a hard ground ball up the middle by All-ACC player Keri Lounge to tally the second out of the inning. Crystal Rizzuto then chopped one off the plate that Tech misplayed as the Terps took an early 1-0 lead.
Junior designated hitter Liz Bartle put the Yellow Jackets on the scoreboard in the fourth inning with a double off the center field fence to plate junior Katie Donovan who singled up the middle as Tech and Maryland were knotted at 1-1.
The Rambling Wreck put their first two runners on in the fifth inning as freshman Kristina Hull led off with a base hit to left field and senior Sara Wissmann chopped a fake bunt, hit-and-run, over the charging third baseman’s head. After a force out at second base, Maryland’s Jessica Aditays recorded a big strikeout for the second out. With runners at second and third and two outs, senior Tara Knudsen delivered the go ahead runs for Tech with a two-out single up the middle to plate Hull and Reddick. With the bases loaded, senior Tasha Waugh extended the Jackets’ lead to four runs with a base hit to left field to collect two more runs.
UMD’s Monica Cyphert entered the game for the Terps in the circle. Cyphert recorded the final out of the inning for Maryland as Tech led 5-1 after five innings of play.
The Terps put two runners on with one out in the bottom half of the sixth inning as Leiter reached on a throwing error by Tech and Nneka Cardoza singled off the top of the left field wall. Lounge plated both runs for Maryland with a double to left-center field to cut Tech’s lead to two runs, 5-3. Crystal Rizzuto brought the Terps within one with the third straight hit in the inning to score Lounge as Tech led 5-4. Voeltz recorded a strikeout for the second out and ended the inning with a foul out to left field as Tech took a one-run lead to the seventh inning.
Knudsen came through again for the Yellow Jackets with her 12th blast of the season to put Tech up by two for the second time in the game, 6-4. Bartle then singled after a strikeout and sophomore Lauren Schlechte followed with a single to put runners on first and second, but the Terps tallied the third out as the game advanced to the bottom half of the seventh with Tech on top, 6-4.
Maryland went down in order in the seventh inning as Tech advanced to face No. 2 seed North Carolina in the elimination bracket at 8 p.m. Live stats will be provided on www.ramblinwreck.com.
