Feb. 5, 2005
ATLANTA – Senior Jessica Sallinger fired her seventh career no-hitter and junior Christine Sheridan went 4-for-6 with two home runs and drove in four runs to lead No. 21 Georgia Tech (2-0) to a sweep over Chattanooga (0-2), 6-0 and 8-0 (5), in the season opener at Glenn Field on Saturday afternoon.
“Pleasantly surprised,” said head coach Ehren Earleywine on the way his team played this afternoon. “I suspect that down the road that they [UTC] will be a completely different team when we play them later this season. Both teams have a lot of new players and there is a learning curve, but we competed all day today.
“I was pleased with the way Sarah Wood pitched today. We really needed that type of performance. Jessica Sallinger did not throw as well as she is capable of in my opinion, but that just shows you how talented she really is. I think she was a little nervous out there, perhaps due to the ACC record or being her senior year, but she was able to pitch through it this afternoon.”
Sallinger (1-0) fanned 10 batters and walked four to record her 39th career shutout. The Kennesaw, Ga., native needs just three more strikeouts to break the Atlantic Coast Conference record for career strikeouts.
Junior Amy Hosier gave Tech its first lead in the opener with a two-out base hit to drive in senior Katie Donovan who walked and then stole second in the bottom of the fourth inning as Tech led 1-0.
The Yellow Jackets tacked on five more runs in the sixth inning to increase their lead to 6-0. Senior Liz Bartle, sophomore Kristina Hull and freshmen Aileen Morales and Stephanie Butler all drove in runs for the Rambling Wreck.
In the nightcap, Sheridan connected on two two-run home runs in the first and third innings and Hull smashed her first collegiate home run in the third inning for a grand slam to give the Jackets an 8-0 win in five innings of play.
Sophomore Sarah Wood (1-0) registered her first collegiate win in the circle, working 3.2 innings, fanning a career-high four and walked just one. Freshman Whitney Humphreys threw the final 1.1 innings, allowing just one hit.
Tech scored six runs on nine hits in game one and tallied eight runs on eight hits in game two. UTC had no runs and no hits in the opener and three hits and one error in the nightcap.
Sophomore Caitlin Lever went 2-for-3 in game two, with one stolen base and scored two runs. Hull finished the afternoon 2-for-4, with five runs batted in.
The Yellow Jackets will hit the road on Wednesday, Feb. 9, to face Georgia Southern in a non-conference doubleheader in Statesboro, Ga. The games are scheduled to start at 2 p.m. and can be followed via live stats on RamblinWreck.com.
-GT SOFTBALL-
