ATLANTA –
Emily Woodruff homered and
Taylor West tossed a gem in the circle to lead the Jacksonville State softball team to a 2-1 win at Georgia Tech on Wednesday at Mewborn Field.
The Gamecocks (13-7) grabbed their second-straight win over the Yellow Jackets (10-13) in Atlanta. They also defeated a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference for the third time this season after earlier wins over Virginia Tech and Virginia.
West (3-2) struck out seven GT players in a complete-game gem that saw her allow just one run on five hits. She bested Yellow Jackets ace Kylie Kleinschmidt (3-7), who allowed two runs on three hits in seven innings. Klenschmidt walked six batters and hit two more in the loss.
Woodruff went 1-for-3 but her hit was a big one, a solo homer in the fourth that gave JSU its second run. Freshman
Whitney Gillespie had a pinch-hit double and senior
Sara Borders singled, walked twice and was hit once in four plate appearances.
Kelsey Chisolm went 2-for-3 for GT, while Courtney Ziese homered in a 1-for-3 game.
The Gamecocks got a run across in the top of the first without putting the ball in play, thanks to three walks and a hit batter from Kleinschmidt. She walked
Jordan Bullock, hit Borders and then walked
Ella Denes and
Melanie Steer to put JSU on the board early.
Woodruff finally got the Gamecocks in the hits column in the fourth and added another run in the process, lining a two-out homer over the wall in left center. Her third homer of the year stretched JSU's lead to 2-0.
The Yellow Jackets got on the board in the fifth on a Ziese homer to right center. The one-out blast came after West had retired nine in a row and cut the Gamecocks' lead in half to 2-1.
West held the Jackets in check the rest of the way, holding off a couple of threats before striking out Samantha Pierannunzi to end the game with two runners on.
The Gamecocks are scheduled to open Ohio Valley Conference play this weekend at Morehead State in a three-game series with the Eagles. The series is set to start with a 12 p.m. CT doubleheader on Saturday in Morehead, Ky., before wrapping up with a single game at 12 p.m. CT on Sunday.
