April 29, 2012
ATLANTA – Hope Rush blasted a grand slam and held Virginia Tech scoreless from the circle as the Georgia Tech softball team earned the ACC series victory over the Hokies 5-0 Sunday in Tech’s regular season finale in front of a crowd of 728 at Mewborn Field.
With the victory, Georgia Tech currently sits in third place in the ACC with a 32-22 overall record, 12-8 in conference play. Virginia Tech drops to 36-18 on the year and 12-8 in the ACC, but the former Tech earns the tiebreaker with the ACC series win.
Not only was Rush hot at the plate, but also froze out Virginia Tech from the circle pitching all seven innings, striking out seven and earning her ninth shut out of the season, second over the Hokies this weekend. Rush finished the game batting 2-for-3 with four RBIs.
Back-to-back hits by Chelsie Thomas and Ashley Thomas started off the fifth inning and a walk drawn by Kelsi Weseman loaded the bases for the Jackets. Kate Kuzma followed with a check swing dribbler that came back to the pitcher Jasmin Harrell. Harrell fired home to get the force out, but the catcher, Betty Rose believed the ball had popped up and was not ready for the throw allowing Chelsie Thomas to score and put the first run of the day on the board.
Two batters later, with the bases still loaded, Rush came up big for Tech blasting her 10th home run and second grand slam of the season, third of her career, over the left field wall to give the Jackets a 5-0 lead and the victory.
The Jackets have the upcoming weekend off, but will return to action at the ACC Tournament in two weeks on May 10th in Chapel Hill, N.C. Currently the Jackets sit in third place in the ACC and would be matched up with #6 seed Virginia in the tournament. However, if Maryland sweeps first place Florida State next weekend, the Terrapins could capture the third place spot.
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
