The 12th-ranked Georgia softball team defeated Texas A&M 11-5 Friday evening at Jack Turner Stadium to take the first game of the weekend series.
Senior Kylie Bass (7-1) delivered a solid performance in the circle. Bass went the distance in the contest, allowing only two earned runs on four hits. She added six strikeouts and finished by retiring the final 11 Aggie (24-14, 2-8) hitters.
“I thought she had an outstanding day,” said head coach Lu Harris-Champer. “That third inning was a cluster, stuff happened, you can’t just put it on one person. It just wasn’t a good inning for us but you’re going to have that, and the key is you have to be resilient. I can’t be prouder of Kylie’s work out there today. The way she spun the ball to win, it’s that simple. She did a great job pitching her game. The defense made some great plays behind her. Justice was lights out at second base. Kylie put out her last 11 batters, that is outstanding, what more do want from a pitcher down the stretch?”
The Bulldog (29-10, 4-6) offense recorded a season-high 16 hits. Sophomore Tyler Armistead picked up three hits, setting a new career high. Mahlena O’Neal and Ciara Bryan also had three hits, setting season highs, respectively. In all, five Bulldogs had multiple hits Friday. Freshman Savana Sikes hit her second grand slam of the season.
“We should rename Savana ‘clutch-ana’ or something,” Harris-Champer added. “She is so clutch and she’s just a baller. We had a lot of really good at-bats up and down the lineup. Lacey in the first inning, Ciara had a great day, Tyler in the nine-hole had a great day, Mahlena had a great day. As we continue to pass the bat down in the lineup great things will happen for us.”
After holding the Aggies scoreless in the top of the first inning, Alyssa DiCarlo opened the scoring with an RBI double off of the left-center field wall. The very next batter, Fincher, brought DiCarlo home with a two-run homerun to center field to bring the lead to 3-0.
In the top of the third inning, Texas A&M plated five runs on only two hits to take a 5-3 lead. The Bulldog offense responded by trimming the Aggie lead to 5-4 thanks to a Bryan RBI single in the home half if the inning.
With DiCarlo’s second RBI double of the game, the Bulldogs tied the contest 5-5 in the bottom of the fourth inning, but they were unable to create a lead.
A CJ Landrum infield RBI single gave Georgia a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Bass completed her second consecutive 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth inning thanks to an amazing defensive play by Justice Milz in the hole at second to end the inning.
Sikes provided some insurance for Georgia in the bottom of the sixth with her second grand slam of the season to extend the lead to 10-5 before the Bulldogs tacked on one more run to bring an 11-5 lead into the seventh and final inning.
Bass sealed the 11-5 victory with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
The Aggies and Bulldogs will face off again on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Jack Turner Stadium in the second game of the series.