GCSU softball wins PBC championship

Staff Reports
The Union-Recorder

Fri, May 16 2008

— In a battle of two teams seeking the first Peach Belt Conference Softball Tournament Title in school history, the Georgia College & State University Lady Bobcats edged North Georgia College & State University Sunday 4-3 in nine innings.
The game was the second title matchup of the day. The double elimination tournament went to two title games because of North Georgia’s 7-3 win earlier in the day.
Junior third baseman Tonya Medders ripped a 2-2 pitch to right with two down in the bottom of the ninth to score Kati Pickowitz or the winning run. Pickowitz had reached on a single.
Junior righty Mandy Chandler tossed seven relief innings for the win (24-7) scattering five hits and just one run with seven strikeouts. Sarah Phillips (17-7) took the loss, going all 8 2/3 innings.
Medders had started the game in the circle, spanning just the first two innings, as in the third the Saints plated a pair on a bases-loaded walk and an error. The Lady ‘Cats answered with three in the fourth.
After a single and a walk, PBC Player of the Year Sherquita Bostick took an 0-1 pitch over the centerfield fence for a 3-2 lead. A North Georgia bases-loaded walk in the top of the seventh knotted the game 3-3 to send it to extra innings.
A leadoff double in the top of the ninth nearly gave NGCSU a lead, but Chandler induced three groundouts to set up Medders’ heroics in the bottom half.
Game one saw the Lady Saints put five runs up in the third to take control. North Georgia designated player Leslee Smith hit a three-run home run in the inning to aid the win. She finished 3-for-4 with two runs and four RBI.
Bostick scored two runs with a double in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-3, but the Lady ‘Cats wouldn’t get any closer after Phillips came in for her second save of the season.
Nicole Adkison went 4 2/3 innings for the win, allowing three runs and fanning two. Chandler took the loss, going just two innings and allowing five earned runs.
The 39 wins this season ranks third in program history, falling behind the 45 in 2006 and 42 in 2003, the team's two NCAA World Series appearances.
The Lady Bobcats now await the seeding for the NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional Tournament beginning May 8. The latest region rankings had Georgia College in fifth.