THOMASVILLE, Ga. – No. 14 Thomas University staged a seventh inning comeback, but fell short, 3-2, to No. 1 Georgia Gwinnett Sunday afternoon at Armory Field.
GGC led, 3-0, heading into the final frame, and Thomas scored two, but left two on base to fall to the top ranked team in the nation. In game two, GGC had to score six runs in the final two innings to win, 6-4, over the Night Hawks.
Thomas is 32-12 overall this season and 16-4 in the Sun Conference with a pair of league doubleheaders to play. TU faces Ave Maria on April 26 in Ave Maria, Fla., then battles St. Thomas on April 28 in Miami Gardens, Fla., to wrap up the regular season.
Game One
Georgia Gwinnett scored two in the first and one in the seventh to own a 3-0 lead, then Thomas attempted a comeback, scoring two in the bottom of the seventh.
Lauren West struck out four, walked two and hit two batters while giving up six hits and three runs in her 7.0 inning loss. West faced a maximum of four batters in five of seven innings.
Thomas' three hits came from
Victoria Camina,
A.J. Weiss and
Gaby Mora. The Night Hawks drew seven walks, led by two from Mora.
GGC connected on three singles to score a pair of runs in the top of the first, then after five scoreless innings, the Grizzlies scored one more in the seventh from a double and a single to center.
Michael Cooper drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the seventh, followed by walks dealt to
Izzy Ekstam, Corryne Diaz and Camina, which plated TU's first run. After a pitching change, Stoltz was out on an infield pop up, then Mora grounded out to second base as Ekstam crossed the plate.
Kelsey Connolly ended the game with a groundout to second, stranding two runners on base.
Game Two
Thomas scored one run in the first, another in the second and two in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead going into the final two innings. But Georgia Gwinnett scored four in the sixth and two in the seventh to win, 6-4. Thomas connected on 11 hits while GGC tagged nine, and each team tallied three errors.
Starter
Katie Lopes pitched 5.1 innings, allowing four runs from seven hits, then Margarita Sena came in for 1.2 innings of relief, but took the loss after allowing two runs from two hits.
Connolly was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored while Mora was 2-for-3 with a run scored.
In the bottom of the first, Stoltz hit a one-out single to shortstop then stole second. Mora drew a walk and Connolly hit an RBI single to shortstop.
An inning later, Diaz hit a one-out single to center and advanced to second on an error. Camina hit an infield single to move Diaz to third, then with two outs, Stoltz hit an RBI single to right field.
With one out in the fifth, Mora singled to left then stole second. Connolly doubled to center field, plating Mora, then Weiss hit an RBI single to third base.
GGC scored four runs from six hits and a TU error in the sixth, then added two more from one hit and an error in the seventh.
