Story Courtesy Georgia Southern sports information
ATHENS, GA - The University of Georgia took advantage of three Georgia Southern errors, scoring three unearned runs and another on a wild pitch to advance in the NCAA Athens Regional with a 4-0 shutout victory over the Eagles Friday night.
The 11th-seeded Bulldogs (52-13) move on to face Florida State, who defeated Coastal Carolina 7-2 earlier in the day. The Eagles (34-34) will play the Lady Chanticleers Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.
“I don’t feel like we played our game defensively, not the game we played last week in our conference tournament,” said GSU head coach Natalie Poole. “I think we are capable of making corrections on the plays we did not do well. We need to eliminate the errors.”
Georgia struck early with a run in the first thanks to a GSU wild pitch. Courtney Knight singled with one out and Chelsea Cantillo doubled to put runners on second and third. A pitch from junior Logan Free (Sandpoint, Idaho) got away from catcher Sam Steiner (Loxley, Ala.) bringing home Knight.
The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 4-0 with three unearned runs in the second inning. Becky Mohl walked with one out and moved to second on a single. Kellie Middleton lined a shot to right field that was mishandled, allowing Mohl to score. After a strikeout, Cantillo doubled down the left field line, scoring two runners for a commanding 4-0 lead.
GSU missed an opportunity to score in the fourth, putting runners on first and third with two outs, but starter Kasi Carroll escaped with a strikeout.
The Eagles were primed to get on the scoreboard in the fifth, receiving back-to-back singles from junior A.J. Street (Lilburn, Ga.) and freshman Carrie Mixon (Statesboro, Ga.). But pinch-runner Michelle Beasley (Metter, Ga.) was thrown out at third on a failed squeeze attempt, and after a walk, Carroll got out of the inning with two groundouts.
“I have no reservations about the hitting, we just didn’t manufacture the runs,” added Poole. “We put runners on multiple times but couldn’t get them in.”
Free (15-13) was tagged with the loss, allowing four runs, one earned, and four hits in two innings. Sophomore Melissa Laliberte (Cobourg, Ontario, Canada) gave up two hits in four innings of relief work.
Carroll improves to 28-5 on the season, giving up six hits with four strikeouts.