VIDEO: Postgame Press Conference
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – Second-seeded and eighth-ranked Georgia College (46-9) out hit Carson-Newman (37-14) and capitalized a slew of Eagle mental miscues to advance to the Southeast Region II Championship game with a 3-1 victory Saturday afternoon at the Peeler Complex.
Carson-Newman falls into an elimination game. The Eagles play Saturday night against the winner of an elimination game between GRU Augusta and Armstrong Atlantic.
"We've got to regroup and go back to the drawing board," head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "You can't have two bad games in one day or you're heading home. Good teams are here. We know that and we'll have to step up our game a little bit."
Brooke Ramsey (San Mateo, Calif.) had the lone run of the day for the Eagles with her sixth home run of the season.
Holland Coursey was 3-for-4 with two RBI for the Bobcats while Danielle Bernstein went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Georgia College struck first in the first inning. Coursey doubled over the head of Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) to score Abi LeRoy and give the Bobcats an opening 1-0 advantage.
The Eagles would counter in the fourth with Ramsey's leadoff bomb. She cranked a 1-0 pitch over the fence in left to even it to even it at 1-1.
The tie would be short-lived. Coursey scored the go-ahead run with an RBI single up the middle then Lacey Campbell added insurance with an RBI bloop single down the right field line.
Carson-Newman loaded the bases in the fifth with one out with a trio of base hits. However, a flyout and a foul out ended the Eagles threat.
Sarah Howard (Georgetown, Ky.) took the loss to fall to 10-5. She surrendered three runs and seven hits in 3.2 innings of work. Danielle Kranz (Fairfield, Calif.) worked the final 2.1 innings with three-hit shutout ball.
Carly Lewis went the complete game for the Bobcats to improve to 22-4 on the year. She struck out six and scattered five hits on the afternoon.
Carson-Newman takes on the winner of the GRU Augusta – Armstrong Atlantic matchup at 7 p.m. Saturday. Coverage of that game will be available on the Eagle Sports Network with a free audio stream at cneagles.com/live.
