March 24, 2008
ATLANTA – Winners of three straight games, the Georgia Tech Softball Team (13-21) hosts Furman (11-13) in a doubleheader Tuesday at Glenn Field. First pitch in game one is slated for 2:00 p.m. Live stats of both games will be available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
“We are excited to return home after a long road trip and looking forward to getting some great fan support at Glenn Field on Tuesday,” head coach Sharon Perkins said. “I think we really came together as a team on our spring break trip and I have seen a lot of positives that have us heading on the right direction. This team has never given up and continued to work extremely hard in practice which is why things are starting to come around.”
The Yellow Jackets are coming off a 3-3 spring break trip though Tennessee and South Carolina last week. They won their last three games on the trip including a doubleheader sweep at Coastal Carolina last Saturday.
Georgia Tech is 19-17 all-time against Furman and has won 10 straight games in the series which dates back to 1987. Last year, the Jackets swept a doubleheader at Furman, 5-0 and 8-1. Savannah Brown went 4-for-8, with a home run and three RBI in the twinbill. Aileen Morales drove in a pair of runs for the Jackets in the opener, finishing 3-for-6 for the two games. Blair Shimandle was a perfect 3-for-3 in the opener, while Stephanie Butler went 3-for-3 in the nightcap.
Brown had four RBI in game two of last Sunday’s contest against Coastal Carolina breaking the all-time Georgia Tech record of 172 set by Anne Knobbe. She is now five RBI shy of tying the ACC record of 181 set by Virginia’s Sara Larquier. In addition, junior Whitney Haller is now two home runs away from tying Tara Knudsen’s Georgia Tech home run record of 46 and five behind NC State’s Jen Chamberlin for the ACC record (49).
The Yellow Jackets have 71 stolen bases in 76 opportunities as a team, a 90 percent success rate. The top three hitters in the Georgia Tech line-up have combined for 62 stolen bases as Morales has 27, while freshman Christy Jones and junior Blair Shimandle have 18 apiece.
Morales has been on fire lately. In the month of March, she is batting .407 with 17 runs scored, three doubles, one triple, two home runs, 12 RBI and 23 stolen bases in 19 games. She has a .593 slugging percentage and a .471 on-base percentage.