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SB: Georgia Tops Florida 2-1, Super Regional Championship Today
SOFTBALL | at (3) Florida | W, 2-1
Winning pitcher: Lilli Backes (16-10)
Save: Randi Roelling (4)
Losing Pitcher: Keagan Rothrock (15-6)
Season Record: 35-22, 7-16 SEC
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Senior Lilli Backes’ pitching performance on Saturday lifted the Georgia Bulldogs to a 2-1 victory over the (3) Florida Gators on Saturday in the Gainesville Super Regional.
The win forces a winner-take-all game three of the Super Regional. Sunday’s winner will advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Georgia will be looking for its sixth program appearance in the WCWS.
FAST FACTS
- Lilli Backes pitched 6.1 innings in her outing, picking up her 16th win. She struck out eight Gator batters and was tabbed for no earned runs and seven hits. With runners in scoring position, Backes held the Gators to 1-for-15 in the game.
- Randi Roelling entered in the top of the seventh with two on and one out. She induced a fly out and a pop out to slam the door and secure her fourth save of the season.
- Backes and Roelling combined to strand 13 Florida runners on base.
- Lyndi Rae Davis’ first-inning home run put Georgia ahead 1-0. It was her fourth of the season. Emily Digby led off the second inning with a home run to widen the lead to 2-0, her third of the season.
- Jaydyn Goodwin and Digby each finished 2-for-3 at the plate.
Video Highlights
Box Score
Key Quotes
Georgia Head Coach Tony Baldwin
Opening statement…
“Yeah, just super proud of our group. You know, I thought we came out, with some fire to start the game and had a good plan and, got a couple good swings off and then Lilli really was the story of today, of just how resilient she is. Again, we just keep talking about relentless competitiveness and you have to do that all the way to the last out and certainly when you’re playing a team like Florida with so many weapons and such a good team, if you let up and stopped competing for a second, you’re going to be in trouble. Just really proud of the way the whole team competed and stayed together.”
On the team playing loose…
“That’s what it’s all about, it’s just playing free. You know, I’ve been around this for a minute and the thing that Lu would always talk about is that the postseason is the best time to play, right? Just let her rip and, you know, you do all of this stuff for all the months leading up to it, the thing that you’re training over time, the outside people think that we’re training ground balls and swing mechanics and spins and pitches and really what you’re training is mindset to be able to get to the end and let it rip and believe that you are capable of doing it, and at the end of the day, our team’s not perfect. You know, we make mistakes, we made some today. Gosh, we made, what, three errors, a handful of walks. We made a base running [mistake]. We missed a first and second, nobody out, we don’t get a bunt. But the thing that we can show up and hang our hat on every day is that we’re going to compete, and we have resilience, and we’ve learned to be those things. If they learn anything about wearing the G, it’s that you better be a competitor and you better be resilient. And that doesn’t just happen by luck. It happens by putting in the work and learning the lessons. And so here we’re just trying to make our university proud, trying to make our alums proud, the people that built this program, I’m trying to make Lu proud. We’re just going out and playing softball. It’s the best time of year.”
Senior Lilli Backes
On what was working for her in the circle…
“I think I just attacked with my pitches and my defense had my back a lot today. I definitely wasn’t perfect at any point in, but I think our defense really locked down once we got people on base and they did really good job.”
Sophomore Emily Digby
On facing Keagan Rothrock two days in a row…
“Credit to her, she’s a really great pitcher. But we also did our homework too. We studied, not our outcomes, but just kind of the pitch sequence that we got last night and just kind of learned each pitch, and then adjusted when we got on the box today, and I’m really proud of our team.”
On the team’s resilience…
“It’s no secret that we’ve been in this position before, but we had nothing to lose, just put it all in the put it all in the field and leave with our gas tank empty. I’m just really proud of how we bounced back and just like I said, we’ve been in this position before, so we know how to get it done, and it’s not going to be pretty every time, but all that matters is if we get the win.”
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