Georgia women’s softball team opens NCAA Athens Regional with win
Chamberlain Smith
By Jacob Oldknow
Staff Correspondent
On a picture perfect Friday afternoon in Athens, the Georgia Bulldog softball team was looking to get off to a perfect start in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs were searching for a win over Western Kentucky in their first game of the Athens Regional.
Western Kentucky had a different plan and got on the board first with an RBI double from the Hilltoppers starting pitcher Kennedy Sullivan. The clutch hit gave Western Kentucky a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
The Bulldogs quickly responded in the bottom half of the first inning. After Sullivan gave up back to back walks, junior first baseman Lacey Fincher made it count with a three-run homer.
Thankfully for the Bulldogs, in the second inning, senior pitcher Mary Wilson Avant was able to strand Hilltoppers at first and second to keep Western Kentucky off the board in the second inning.
In the 3rd inning, Georgia threatened, but was unable to score and left runners at second and third.
Western Kentucky was given the opportunity to close the gap in the fourth inning. The Hilltoppers cut the Bulldog lead to one, after a leadoff double from third baseman Taylor Sanders was later cashed in by a Taylor Davis’ sacrifice fly.
The Bulldogs were able to preserve a 3-2 lead after four innings when Bulldog pitcher Mary Wilson Avant tightroped her way out of a massive jam with runners on second and third.
Avant was unable to work that same magic in the fifth, when Western Kentucky tied the game at 3 with an RBI single from Sanders.
The Bulldog offense answered back in the fifth inning with yet another home run from Fincher, this time of the two-run variety, to give the Bulldogs a 5-3 lead. Fincher was the catalyst for the Bulldogs’ offense, going 2-3 with two homers and five RBIs on the day.
The Bulldogs offense continued to pour it on in the sixth inning with a RBI double from pinch hitter Mckinsie Puckett that extended the Bulldogs lead to 7-3. The Bulldogs delivered the knockout blow to Hilltoppers when Sydney Chambley blasted a grand slam to give Georgia an 11-3 run rule victory over the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers after six innings.
After the opening win, Bulldogs head coach Lu Harris-Camper told reporters “I was really proud of our offense for, again, stringing together good at bats together with the process for the entire game.”
The Bulldogs will look to ride the momentum from their offense Saturday as Georgia takes on the No. 1-seeded Duke Blue Devils Saturday at noon for a chance to advance to the Athens Regional final on Sunday.
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