SALEM, Va. — Despite a complete game thrown by Kylee Smith, the No. 1 University of North Georgia softball team fell in a pitcher's duel to Southern Indiana, 1-0, Thursday afternoon in the 2018 NCAA Division II Softball Championship at the Moyer Sports Complex.
Both team's pitchers went through the first four innings without giving up a base runner before Southern Indiana got the first hit of the game in the top of the fifth with one out. The Nighthawks quickly got out of the inning thanks to an inning-ending double play by Sydney Sprague as she caught a line drive and threw back to first to get UNG back to the plate.
Alishia Frierson started the inning with a double into left center, but North Georgia could get nothing else going in the frame, leaving the game scoreless headed to the sixth. USI struck in the sixth, plating a run off a single to center after UNG committed an error with no one out to give the Screaming Eagles the chance to move runners over.
North Georgia had an opportunity in the bottom of the sixth, drawing a leadoff walk and moving Lexi Duncan over to second on a sacrifice bunt, but USI pitcher Jennifer Leonhardt got the Eagles out of the inning and held on in the seventh to advance in the winner's bracket.
NOTES
- Smith (35-2) threw all seven innings and struck out six along the way. Leonhardt also went the distance, punching out 11 batters and giving up just one hit.
- The loss breaks a 19-game winning streak that UNG was on coming into the tournament.
- Fourth-seeded Angelo State defeated fifth-seeded West Chester, 1-0, to advance in the winner's bracket on the same side UNG is on.
NEXT UP
North Georgia will have to battle out of the loser's bracket as they will play in elimination games from here on. The Nighthawks will battle West Chester tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.
