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Georgia Southern Advances to Softball Championship
Georgia Southern 3, College of Charleston 2 (11 innings)
Box Score - PDF
Greensboro, N.C. – Andrea Tarashuk singled through the right side in the bottom of the 11th to score Shelby Morrill from third and give the Eagles the walk-off 3-2 victory and move them into the championship game against UNCG.
Brooke Red threw a complete 11-inning game for the Eagles, allowing two runs (none earned) on nine hits, no walks and striking out 10. Hope Klicker was handed the loss for the Cougars after 10.1 strong innings, allowing three runs (one earned) on 10 hits, walking two and striking out nine.
Lexi Allen went 3-for-5 to lead Georgia Southern, while Kaitlyn Johnson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Kelsey Hodgson went 3-for-5 to lead CofC and Ashton Jarrett went 2-for-5 with the team’s lone RBI.
Both teams stranded runners through the first two innings, with both pitchers working out of trouble. In the top of the third, CofC’s Kristy Giragosian doubled to right center to lead off the inning, then moved to third on a Carly Corthell sac bunt. However, Brooke Red again worked out of trouble with a ground out and a fly out to end the threat.
Klicker allowed only one hit to the Eagles through the first three innings before Alexa Lewis singled in the bottom of the fourth. Klicker got Lexi Allen to ground into a double play for the second out of the inning, before giving up a single to Kourtny Thomas. She then got Morrill to strikeout to end the threat.
In the bottom of the fifth, Andrea Tarashuk reached and advanced to second on a CofC error with one out. Kaitlyn Johnson then grounded out to advance the pinch-runner Grossman to third before Klicker got a strikeout of Hamilton to end the inning and neutralize the GSU threat.
It was the same story in the later innings with each team leaving runners on base with no score to send the game to extras. In the top of the eighth, College of Charleston sent a two-out single to left, but Red got a ground out to strand her. Klicker then got a clean bottom half of the inning to keep the game tied at 0.
Kelsey Hodgson led off the top of the ninth with a single to second and moved up on a sacrifice bunt. Mackenzie Maples then singled to the shortstop and the runners advanced on a wild pitch with two outs. Then, Becca Mueller struck out swinging but reached first on passed ball which allowed the runner to score from third to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.
Shelby Morrill led-off the Georgia Southern half of the ninth inning with a single to right, but was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice. Tabby Douberley, who reached on the fielder’s choice, moved to second on a ground out by Tarashuk then scored on a single to left by Kaitlyn Johnson to tie the game at 1 and send it to the 10th inning where international tiebreak rules were applied.
Kristy Giragosian was placed on second for the Cougars in the top of the 10th and moved to second on a Carly Corthell sacrifice. Then Ashton Jarrett send a bloop single into left to score the runner from second and give the Cougars a 2-1 lead. Kelsey Hodgson then singled through the left side to put runners on first and second with two outs for Chandler Frisbie who popped up to end the top half.
In the bottom half, AJ Hamilton was placed on second for Georgia Southern and advanced to third on a sac bunt by McLendon. Alexa Lewis then sent a fly ball to deep left to score Hamilton on a sac fly to tie the score at 2. Klicker then worked around a two-out double and walk to keep the game tied at 2.
Carly Hansis was the runner placed on second for the Cougars in the top of the 11th and moved to third on a Mackenzie Maples sacrifice. Georgia Southern’s Brooke Red worked out of the jam with two weak pop ups to end it.
Shelby Morrill was placed on second for the Eagles in the bottom half and advanced to third on a Tabby Douberley sacrifice. Andrea Tarasuk then singled through the right side to score the winning run from third and advance the Eagles to the championship game.
College of Charleston finishes the season at 37-20, while Georgia Southern moves to 31-27 on the season and will face UNCG in tomorrow’s 1:00 p.m. championship game on ESPN3.