May 16, 2009
ATLANTA – A two-out, two-run home run by sophomore Jessica Weaver capped a three-run fourth inning as the No. 14 Georgia Tech Softball Team (45-13) beat Auburn (30-28), 4-1, Friday night in a winner’s bracket game of the NCAA Softball Atlanta Regional.
The Yellow Jackets now advance into Sunday’s regional final and will need to win just one game to earn to the programs’ first-ever Super Regional bid. Georgia Tech has now won 10 straight games and will need to be defeated twice on Sunday.
Sophomore Kristen Adkins (24-7) picked up the win as she allowed one earned run on four hits and a walk. Adkins fanned three batters in the complete-game effort.
For the second straight day, there was a rain delay to begin but today was much longer that last night’s one hour and twenty minute one. Heavy rains and the threat of thunderstorms in the area caused a five and a half hour rain delay pushing first pitch back to 6:30 p.m. This was the second five-plus hour rain delay of the season for the Yellow Jackets.
When play did resume Auburn struck first for a run in the first inning. With runners at second and third and just one out, sophomore Kristen Adkins got the second out of the inning without a run scoring on a ground ball to redshirt junior Jen Yee at shortstop. The Tigers got the run, however, when Adkins threw a wild pitch on an 0-2 pitch and Lindsey Harrelson scampered home with the game’s first run.
The Jackets came back to tie the game in the top of the third inning when Yee hit a two-out, solo home run to dead right field. It was her ACC-leading 13th round-tripper of the season and tied the game at one.
Georgia Tech then made it a 4-1 with three runs in the top of the fourth inning. Senior Tiffany Johnson got it going with a one-out single up the middle. She went to second on a wild pitch and then scored as Adkins ripped a double into the gap in left-center field. Later in the inning, sophomore Jessica Weaver hit a two-out, two-run home run that hit the top of the fence in left field and carried over accounting for the other two runs and knocking Auburn starting pitcher Anna Thompson from the game. For Weaver, it was her fourth home run of the season.
Adkins made those four runs stick as she used her drop ball to force ground ball after ground ball from the Tiger hitters. There was a scary moment in the sixth inning when Harrelson lined a shot off the arm of Adkins, but she was able to shake it off and got through the rest of the frame on a strikeout and a ground out.
With a season-ending injury to freshman Kelsi Weseman, the Jackets have had to shuffle several players around but you would never know that based on the game-ending double-play the middle infielders turned. Pinch hitter Morgan Murphy hit a shot that appeared headed up the middle. Yee, normally the second baseman, stabbed it and flipped to sophomore second baseman Christy Jones. Jones, who has started every game of her career in left field, caught Yee’s toss with her back to first base and then wheeled and threw to first nabbing Murphy and ending the game.
Thompson (15-16) took the loss for Auburn as she allowed four earned runs on five hits in 3.2 innings. She struck out five and did not walk a batter. Jenee Loree hurled 3.1 innings of hitless ball. She walked three and also fanned five.
For complete coverage of the Atlanta Regional, fans can visit the Tournament Central page at www.ramblinwreck.com. The site is updated throughout each day with recaps, box scores, quotes and live stats via Gametracker. In addition, live audio of all Georgia Tech games is available free of charge.
