April 1, 2003
ATLANTA – Winners of 13 of its last 15 games, the Georgia Tech softball team (26-13) will face one of its stiffest challenges of the season Wednesday when the Jackets travel to Athens for the annual meeting in-state rival Georgia (36-5). Both games with the ninth-ranked Bulldogs, who have won 11 of 12, will be broadcast by WREK (91.1 FM).
Last time out, the Jackets exploded for 24 runs and 27 hits in a doubleheader sweep (14-0 and 10-1) of Mercer Sunday. Junior center fielder Sara Wissmann homered and drove in eight runs, while classmate Tara Knudsen had five runs batted in and her team-best ninth home run of the year. Georgia is coming off a three-game sweep at Arkansas.
Despite a split in last year’s doubleheader in Atlanta, Tech trails the all-time slate with Georgia by an 8-2 count. The two teams first met in 1997, the Bulldogs’ first season of competition, with UGA posting an 8-2 victory at the Georgia State Invitational. Georgia won the first five meetings between the two teams, before Tech broke through with a 6-5 victory in Atlanta on March 2, 2000. The Jackets posted their second win of the series in game two of last year’s doubleheader at Glenn Field. Knudsen’s home run off the scoreboard in the third inning propelled the Jackets to a 2-1 victory, and Jessica Sallinger tossed a four-hitter in the win over the 25th-ranked Bulldogs. Georgia won the first game 1-0, despite three-hitter from Tech’s Erin Voeltz.
The two squads have only met three times in Athens, with the Bulldogs winning each game, including a 3-2 and 5-4 sweep in 2001. Under head coach Kate Madden, Tech is 2-6 versus Georgia and has won two of the last five meetings.
As a team, Georgia is batting .314, with seven regulars batting over .300 for the season. Junior center fielder Nicole Barber leads the way with a .422 average and 49 of the Bulldogs’ 100 stolen bases. She also has four home runs and 22 runs batted in. Sophomore pitcher/designated player Michelle Green is second on the team with a .373 average. Junior Shannon McKeon is UGA’s top power threat as she leads the team with nine home runs and 37 RBI.
Green also anchors the Bulldog pitching staff. She owns a 26-2 record with a 0.62 earned run average and 265 strikeouts in 181 innings. Senior Lacey Gardner is 9-2 with a 0.81 ERA and gives UGA a solid No. 2 starter. Georgia sports a team ERA of 0.63.
Offensively, the Jackets are led by Knudsen, who has returned to her All-American form of a year ago with a .455 average (20-44), six home runs and 20 runs batted in her last 14 games. She has also roped five doubles and scored 14 runs. After batting just .214 in February, Knudsen hit .455 in March to raise her season average to a team-best .333. She also leads the Jackets with nine home runs, 29 RBI and 25 runs scored. Named ACC Player of the Week Monday, Knudsen is riding a season-best nine-game hitting streak. Led by the Thornton, Colo., native, Tech has hit 15 home runs in its last 14 games.
Another big part of Tech’s recent offensive improvement has been first baseman Katie Donovan, who after opening 2003 with a .087 batting average through 10 games, has rebounded in a big way to bat .436 (17-39) with eight RBI since returning from Tech’s spring break trip. On the season, she ranks third on the team with a .290 mark and second with 21 RBI.
The Yellow Jacket pitching staff is led by Sallinger (14-9), who is on pace to eclipse her own single-season strikeout record of 337 set last season. She has 212 this season in 141 innings pitched compared to 337 in 257 innings a year ago. In 2002, Sallinger fanned 9.2 batters per seven innings, while this season she is striking out an average of 10.5 batters per seven innings tossed. She already owns 10 double-digit strikeout games in 19 starts this year, compared to 14 in 36 starts in 2002. Sallinger has also topped her own single-game mark twice this season with 17 strikeouts against both Oakland (Feb. 23) and Maryland (March 22.). She owns a 1.24 earned run average and opponents are batting just .140 against her.
Following Wednesday’s games, Tech opens Atlantic Coast Conference play at Virginia Saturday and Maryland Sunday.
-GT-
