No. 16 Seed Georgia Holds Serve Over Northwestern, 5-2

Saturday, May 21

Athens, Ga.

Noon CT/1 p.m. ET

Northwestern

27-27

Georgia

42-17

Georgia

Northwestern

No. 16 Seed Georgia Holds Serve Over Northwestern, 5-2

5/21/2016 2:20:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

ATHENS, Ga. – No. 16 overall seed and 15^th ranked Georgia hit two early home runs Saturday in an NCAA Athens Regional winner's bracket game against Northwestern before pulling away for a 5-2 win over the Wildcats.

Northwestern (27-27) falls into the loser's bracket with its loss and will take on the winner of Oklahoma State and Maine at 5 p.m. CT/6 p.m. ET tonight. Georgia (42-17) advances to the Regional championship tomorrow, where it will face the winner of tonight's contest at noon CT/1 p.m. ET.

The game was the second meeting between the teams this season. On Feb. 27 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., Northwestern held a 4-2 lead on then-No. 8 Georgia with two outs in the seventh inning before the Bulldogs rallied for a 5-4 win over the Wildcats.

Each team went down in order in the first inning before Georgia's Tina Iosefa -- the NCAA's leader with 81 RBIs on the year -- led off the top of the second with a solo home run. The Bulldogs followed a two-out walk later in the inning with a second homer, pushing their lead to 3-0 after an inning and a half.

In the top of the third, Georgia led off with a triple and Amy Letourneau entered the circle in relief of Northwestern starter Kristen Wood. The next batter singled on the infield and stole second, but Letourneau limited the rally to just a single run on a sacrifice fly to keep the deficit manageable, 4-0, heading into the bottom of the third.

The Bulldogs continued to rally in the top of the fourth, using a pair of sacrifices after a leadoff single and a one-out walk to put runners at second and third with two down. An infield single scored one before Letourneau coaxed a lazy fly to leave everyone else on base.

Andrea Filler ripped a single with two outs in the top of the fourth for Northwestern before Georgia ace Chelsea Wilkinson got a big pop fly to left to leave the senior Wildcat at first.

In the top of the fifth, the Wildcats walked the leadoff Bulldog to plate. One out later, Filler gloved a line drive at short and fired to first for the 30^th double play of the season for NU, ending the inning. Northwestern entered the postseason ranked fifth in the nation in double plays turned this year.

More great defense prevented the Georgia lead from growing further in the sixth. With two on and one out, the batter hit a soft line drive toward center. Sabrina Rabin came charging in hard, going into a headlong dive to glove the ball and contribute to another scoreless Bulldogs frame.

Freshman Kenzie Ellis entered the circle in relief in the top of the seventh gave up an infield single to the first batter she faced. Ellis recovered by striking out the All-American Iosefa before retiring the next two Bulldogs in order to earn a scoreless NCAA Tournament appearance.

In the bottom of the seventh, Morgan Nelson smoked a two-hopper to third that was mishandeled for an error to lead off the inning. One out later, Letourneau annihiliated a pitch to dead center for a two-run home run to cut the Northwestern deficit to 5-2. The shot was her 15th of the year and the 44th of her career, tying her with Erin Dyer (2006-09) for fifth on NU's all-time list. No further runners reached base for the #B1GCats in the game, however.

Wood (3-8) took the loss, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk in two-plus innings in the start. Letourneau tossed 4.0 frames, giving up one run on five hits and three walks with a strikeout. Ellis went the final scoreless inning, surrendering a single hit with a strikeout.

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