Game One Box Score Game Two Box Score
ATLANTA (March 17) – The Georgia Tech softball team used strong pitching and timely hitting to earn a sweep of a doubleheader with Samford on March 17 at Glenn Field. The Yellow Jackets (14-10) were able to get on the board early in the first game and held off the Bulldogs for a 3-0 win. In the day’s second contest, Tech overcame an outstanding Samford (12-19) pitching effort and staged a sixth-inning rally to garner a 2-0 victory.
In the day’s first game, Tech got all the runs it would need in the bottom of the first inning as freshman Tara Knudsen reached base after being hit by a pitch and scored two batters later when fellow rookie Tasha Waugh sent Samford starter Erin Landsburg’s 1-1 pitch over the center-field wall to give the Jackets a 2-0 lead. The homer was Waugh’s third of the year and was hit into a stiff wind that was blowing in from straight away center field.
Tech finished the scoring in the game in the bottom of the fith inning as Waugh once again provided the RBI with a sacrifice fly to center field that scored junior Jamie Frost from third. The fly out came after Frost reached base after being hit and was followed by an infield single by Knudsen. The two moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by senior Ellen Styer.
Yellow Jacket starter Tiffany Goodman (7-4) earned the win as she tossed 6.1 scorless innings and scattered five Bulldog hits in the game before being relieved by freshman Erin Voeltz. Voeltz recorded the last two outs of the game en route to her team-leading third save of the year. Landsburg (3-7) took the loss for Samford, as she turned in a complete-game effort, giving up the three runs on 11 hits.
The second game of the day turned out to be a pitchers duel, as Tech starter Erin Voeltz and Samfords Brianne Mertens allowed only five hits between them and did not allow a hit until the fourth inning.
Mertens held the Yellow Jackets hitless for five innings, before the Tech offense was able to get all of its hits and runs in the game during the bottom of the sixth inning. After Soraya Reddick led off the frame with a single, and was followed two batters later by Sara Wissmann, who reached on a fielder’s choice, Jamie Frost loaded the bases by drawing a one-out walk. Ellen Styer followed Frost with the game winning hit, as she sent a seeing-eye single into center field that scored both Reddick and Wissmann to give Tech the decisive 2-0 lead.
Voeltz (6-6) shut the door on the Bulldogs in the top of the seventh inning as she struck out the side en route to her sixth win of the year. The freshman righthander limited Samford to three hits in the game, and struck out a season-high eight batters in the shutout win. Mertens (8-9) was the hard-luck loser as she held Tech just two hits while striking out five and allowing only one batter to reach base via a walk.
The Yellow Jackets will conclude their brief three-game homestand on Wednesday, March 21, when they will host Arkansas in a single game beginning at 4:00 p.m. at Glenn Field.
