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No. 2 Alabama Wins Slugfest Against No. 20 Georgia Tech, 12-9
AUBURN, Ala. – The
Alabama softball team slugged its way to a 12-9 victory over No. 20
ranked Georgia Tech to open the SEC/ACC/Big XII Challenge, Friday night
at Jane B. Moore Field. After the win the Crimson Tide move to 5-0 on
the young season.
The two teams went back-and-forth all game
long as each team collected 13 hits in a game that lasted nearly three
and half hours.
Seniors Jennifer Fenton and Cassie
Reilly-Boccia paced the Crimson Tide attack with four hits each. Fenton
scored three runs and drove in three with a stolen base while
Reilly-Boccia drove in three runs and drew a walk. The four hits tied a
career high for Fenton and set one for Reilly-Boccia.
After the
two teams traded a pair of runs in the first inning, Alabama erupted
for five runs in the second to race out to a 6-2 lead. Nine Crimson
Tide batters came up in the frame as UA scored the five runs on three
hits.
After chipping away to move the score to 6-3 in the
second, Georgia Tech (6-2) seized the lead by putting up four runs in
the bottom of the third with three being unearned.
Bama evened
the score with one swing of the bat in the top of the fifth when
sophomore Kaila Hunt smashed her team-leading fourth home run of the
season with a shot to dead-center field.
In the top of the sixth
the Tide once again took the lead this time coming on a two-run home
run by senior Amanda Locke. With one on, Locke hit a prodigious blast
that cleared well over the scoreboard in left to hand UA the 9-7 lead.
The homer was her third on the year.
Fenton collected her fourth
hit in a big way as she tripled off the wall in right-center to give
Alabama an 11-7 lead. Reilly-Boccia followed suit with her fourth hit
as well, singling up the middle to plate Fenton and hand the Tide a
12-7 lead in the top of the seventh.
Sophomore Jackie Traina
went the distance to improve to 4-0 on the season. Traina allowed nine
runs – four earned on 13 hits and struck out six while walking four.
Alabama tagged Tech hurler Lindsey Anderson (4-1) for 12 runs – 11 earned on 13 hits. Anderson walked eight and struck out four.
Alabama
will continue tournament play on the Plains when it returns to Jane B.
Moore Field tomorrow morning to face Virginia Tech. The two teams will
open the day at 10 a.m. UA will then face No. 4 ranked Oklahoma at
12:30 p.m.
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