HIGHLIGHTS:• Redshirt freshman
Lydia Witkowski had three hits and scored three runs
•
A.J. Hamilton had a three-run home run
• Kiera Camp allowed just one earned run
MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. – The Georgia Southern softball team wrapped up an impressive weekend of play at the EMU Madeira Beach Spring Invitational Sunday, rallying in a big way for an 8-3 win over UMass-Lowell. Eagles went 4-1 for the event, hitting .294 as a team, and scored 28 runs on 45 hits while getting a staff ERA of 2.03.
The Eagles got off to a fast start in the first inning as Witkowski and
Taylor Rogers singled and then moved up on
Emily Snider's sacrifice bunt. Witkowski scored the game's first run when
Morgan Robinson drove her home with a sacrifice fly to right field. UML came right back and scored a pair of unearned runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.
After the Riverhawks tacked on a run in the second inning, Witkowski led off the third inning with a triple and later scored the first of seven unanswered runs to make it a 3-2 game in favor of UML.
In the fifth inning, the Eagles erupted for six runs.
Alesha Mann,
India Davis and Witkowski all reached on infield singles and Mann scored on Rogers' sacrifice fly. Snider then smoked a single to center field to plate Davis and Witkowski later scored when UML committed an error. With two runners on, Hamilton obliterated a 2-2 offering to left-center field for a three-run home run to make it 8-3 and force a pitching change.
Witkowski capped off an impressive weekend with three more hits and three runs scored. Rogers had two hits while Snider, Hamilton (3 RBIs),
Hannah Farrell, Mann and Davis each had one of the 10 hits.
Camp (W, 2-3) went the distance, allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits with three walks and a strikeout.
Witkowski, a redshirt freshman, moved from the No. 2 spot to the leadoff spot for the weekend and hit .421 with eight hits, seven runs scored and three stolen bases. Rogers, who moved down to the No. 2 spot in the order, hit .350 for the weekend while Robinson led the team with a .438 average and Snider was right behind her with a .429 clip.
The Eagles (5-5) are scheduled to open their home portion of the 2016 schedule with a single game against Kennesaw State Tuesday at 4 p.m., weather permitting. GS will then head to Conway, South Carolina, next weekend for an event hosted by Coastal Carolina in which the team will play Iowa three times and CCU twice.
SMITH SAYS:"We learned this weekend that we can come back in these situations. We would get down in the game, but we kept coming back and fighting. I thought our offense did a lot of good things and our pitching settled down. We played together as a team and people stepped up at different times. I truly believe we gained some confidence this weekend heading into a tougher tournament at Coastal Carolina and a single game against Kennesaw State. We had good energy, learned a lot and I'm excited to see what this team can do."
