April 20, 2008
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech Softball Team (25-28, 6-11 ACC) had a 7-0 lead after the third inning and hung on to defeat Boston College (24-26, 3-12) 7-6 and win its second straight Atlantic Coast Conference Series. Senior Aileen Morales, junior Blair Shimandle, senior Savannah Brown, junior Whitney Haller and freshman Jessica Weaver had two hits apiece as part of a 13-hit Yellow Jacket attack. Senior Whitney Humphreys did not allow an earned run and struck out four as she improved to 15-14 on the season.
The Yellow Jackets had a chance for a big first inning as they loaded the bases with nobody out, but had to settle for two runs. Senior Aileen Morales led off the inning with a single to right field and then stole second base, her 39th of the season. Junior Blair Shimandle hit a weak grounder to the right side and when BC first baseman Dani Weir made a bad throw to the second baseman covering, Shimandle was safe. Morales never stopped running around third base and came across to score the first run of the game.
Shimandle followed by stealing her 32nd base of the season and moved to third base on a sharp single to left off the bat of senior Savannah Brown. BC pitcher Taylor Peyton walked junior Whitney Haller to load the bases with nobody out, but got a ground out and pop out by freshman Amanda Crow and senior Brittany Barnes for two quick outs. The Jackets did get another run on a Weaver RBI infield single.
The Eagles threatened with runners at the corners and two outs in the top of the second inning, but Tech senior pitcher Whitney Humphreys got Gemma Ypparila to fly out to freshman Christy Jones in left and end the inning.
Tech blew the game wide open with five runs on seven hits in the third inning. The Yellow Jackets did leave the bases loaded again, but now had a 7-0 lead after three innings of play. After a RBI double by senior Brittany Barnes and another hard hit by Weaver, Alliison Gage came into the game in relief of Peyton but did not fare any better.
Senior Stephanie Butler delivered a RBI infield single and then a walk to Jones loaded the bases for Morales. Morales reached on a fielder’s forcing the runner at home and the inning’s second out but three straight RBI singles by Shimandle, Brown and Haller gave Georgia Tech the 7-0 lead.
Humphreys’ day was done after four solid innings in which she allowed just one hit and no walks while striking out two. She was relieved once again by junior Tiffany Johnson who worked around a leadoff single in the fifth inning to preserve the shutout.
Georgia Tech was unable to get the eighth run and end the game early via the run-rule. As the game moved to the sixth inning, the third Tech pitcher of the day, freshman Emily Schreck, came in. BC got the bats going and scored three runs on five hits against Schreck so with two on and two out, Humphreys re-entered the game. Ypparila had a chance to make it an even closer game but Humphreys struck her out on three pitches to end the inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, Renee Ramos hit a two-out, three-run home run to make it a 7-6 game. All three of those runs were unearned as a passed ball on a strikeout earlier in the inning gave the Eagles an extra out to play with. Irene Delagrammatica made it interesting by singling through the left side on the very next pitch, but Humphreys got Dani Weir to fly out to Jones in left ending the game and halting BC’s comeback attempt one run short.
Humphreys (15-14) got the win as she ended up working 5.1 innings and was charged with three runs (all unearned) on four hits and no walks. She had four strikeouts. Peyton (12-10) took the loss as she lasted just 2.1 innings and allowed five runs (all earned) on seven hits and one walk.
Georgia Tech’s eight-game homestand continues Wednesday against host cross-town foe Georgia State at 3:00 p.m. and then Maryland over the weekend of April 26-27. Live stats of every game can be found via the Gametracker link at www.ramblinwreck.com.
