The Georgia softball team rallied back from a tough loss earlier in the day to defeat the Charlotte 49ers, 5-0, and advance to the Athens Regional Championship game. The Bulldogs will take on the Liberty Flames once again, who they lost to 7-3 earlier on Saturday.
Lilli Backes, who only pitched 2.2 innings against Liberty, shut out the 49ers and allowed only one hit with three strikeouts in her complete game effort. After struggling earlier in the day, Backes’ pitching clinched Georgia another shot at a victory against the Flames in the championship game.
“Really proud of the way that we bounced back,” head coach Tony Baldwin said. “Super proud of Lilli [Backes] coming back and throwing the way that we know she can and then just continuing to grind through and having quality at-bats and finally breaking through and putting some runs on the board.”
Backes opened once again on the mound for the Bulldogs and threw an impeccable game. With the first Charlotte batter up, Ellie Armistead overthrew a line drive to Emily Digby that looked to spell early disaster for the Bulldogs. Despite the error, Backes somehow got out of the inning with help from an incredible catch by Dallis Goodnight that stranded two Charlotte runners in scoring position.
Georgia’s offense looked entirely rejuvenated against the 49ers as well. Sydney Kuma singled early to get on base and Lyndi Rae Davis finished the job for the Bulldogs with a double that brought Kuma home for the game's first run. Goodnight then drew a walk with the bases loaded, scoring Jaydyn Goodwin and putting UGA up 2-0 heading into the third.
Backes and Goodnight once again combined for a one-two punch to strand a runner on base and get another opportunity on offense. However, the Georgia unit stalled out, as the bats were held scoreless through the third and fourth innings.
Kuma did the work herself in the fifth, with a stellar tag-out turned spin-move and throw to first base for a double play to close the inning out. The Bulldogs failed to score again in the fifth, however, going three up, three down in a matter of just four pitches.
“It's a real mindset type of switch, like you got to fight,” Kuma said. “My hits weren't the best hits today, but I found a way on and tried to score for my team.”
Sara Mosley added an insurance run for the Bulldogs with her second home run of the tournament blasted over the left-field wall. It was Mosley’s 64th home run of her Georgia career and her 19th of the season - tying a team high.
Kuma followed with a single of her own, and Davis joined her on base after drawing a walk. Goodwin, on a pitch right down the middle of the box, slammed a single to the left that scored Kuma and prompted the 49ers to make a pitching change. The change was not enough though, as Digby’s sac-fly scored Hannah Davila before the Bulldogs were finally forced out of the inning.
Backes closed out the game for the Bulldogs, surrendering zero runs to Charlotte over seven innings. To make it even more impressive, she accomplished such a feat in only 103 pitches.
Georgia's ten seniors now live to see another game and will take on Liberty in the NCAA Athens Regional Championship game Sunday at noon. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Los Angeles Regional in a best-of-three Super Regional series the following weekend.