May 11, 2002
Chattanooga, Tenn. – The 25th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs (56-14) rallied with four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to squeeze past South Carolina (43-17) 6-5 and snap a seven-game win streak for the Gamecocks. UGA’s base stealing queen Nicole Barber scored the winning run as she came home on a wild pitch for the walk-off win in the 2002 SEC Softball Tournament. Despite USC’s two home runs and 11 hits, the loss is the first for Carolina in the double-elimination tournament and forced an if-necessary game.
“This is a very tough loss to take. Anytime you have a walk-off loss, especially in this type of game-setting, it always hurts,” said head coach Joyce Compton. “We gave them momentum coming into the inning and it ended up costing us. We need to get better swings on the ball when we are in those types of situations.”
USC’s Kim Evans, Amber Curtis and Debralee Troesh hit back-to-back-to-back doubles in the first inning to give the Gamecocks a 2-0 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, UGA’s Nicole Barber led off with a her 12th triple of the season and eventually scored on a ground out by Kim Wendland, to cut the Gamecocks lead in half. Georgia tied the game in the third when Julie Milner was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on an RBI single by Katie Lewis.
Adrianna Baggetta recorded her first hit of the game as she led off the fourth with a single. Cornett then followed with a blast to the flower bed at the base of the scoreboard, driving in Baggetta and giving USC the 4-2 lead. Samantha Jennings seemingly put the game out of reach as she hit a solo home run, USC’s fourth in four games, to give Carolina a 5-2 lead in the sixth inning.
UGA entered the bottom of the seventh with only four hits on the board before pitcher Michelle Green doubled and Michelle Tyree and Milner singled to lead off the inning. Green came home on Milner’s single and cut the USC lead to two. Barber, who went 3-for-4 for the game, hit an RBI single to bring UGA within one. Barber stole her 65th base of the year as she went to second then advanced to third when Milner scored on an RBI ground out to tie the game 5-5. With Barber at third, Kim Wendland was at the plate and on a 1-1 count, Matthews threw a wild pitch to allow Barber to score the winning run and end the game. Green improved to 19-3 while Matthews fell to 21-7. Matthews needs just one win to reach the 100 career victory mark.
USC and Georgia will play again at 10 a.m. on Sunday with the winner advancing to the SEC championship game.
