ATLANTA (March 7) – Following a successful week which saw the Yellow Jackets end a six-game losing streak and begin a three-game win streak, the Georgia Tech softball team (11-9) will pack their bags and travel west to face a difficult portion of their 2000 schedule.
The Yellow Jackets will play a single contest at St. Mary’s College (6-6) in Moraga, Calif. at 5 p.m. EST. It will be the first meeting between the two teams.
Friday Georgia Tech will participate in the 16-team National Invitational Softball Tournament. The Yellow Jackets will open the tournament in pool play facing Wisconsin (6-5) at 12 p.m, San Jose State (5-10,) at 2 p.m., and UC Santa Barbara (7-8) at 10 p.m. The team will then be seeded based upon results from Friday and continue play on Saturday and Sunday.
“We are looking forward to some great competition out in California this week,” said head coach Kate Madden. “Although these teams overall records may not seem impressive, anytime you face a team from the west, it is serious competition.”
Georgia Tech had their best offensive production over the weekend as they exploded to defeat Radford by the scores of 16-1, and 20-3 and improved their team batting average from .296 to .324. Senior catcher Anne Knobbe (Brea, Calif.) improved her batting average to .477 and currently leads the team in virtually every offensive category including hits (31), RBI (26) and home runs (6). Sophomore rightfielder Kori Jacobson (Chandler, Ariz.) is second on the team in batting average (.382) and third on the team in hits with 21. Freshman shortstop Lindsay Wood (Marietta, Ga.) has played well recently as she collected six of her nine RBI over the weekend and is batting .250 on the season.
“Obviously I’m pleased with the results from last week,” said Madden. “But, our competition over the weekend was not as strong as I would have liked it to be, so we will have to step it up in California.”
In addition to facing tough competition, the trip for the Yellow Jackets will be a homecoming of sorts as 12 of 17 players hail from the west coast, including six from the state of California.
“This week should be a lot of fun for our players from the west coast,” said Madden. “I am sure we will have great crowd support and I hope we can use it to our advantage.”
