Eagles spend spring break in Texas for nine-game road swing

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Keith Smiley

Most students kicked their feet up and caught some sun this past week during spring break, but the Georgia Southern softball team was on the road in Texas. The Eagles won three out of nine games they played over the past week.

The team wasted no time getting their first victory during the break as they took on Texas State in their first Sun Belt competition of the season.

GSU junior Morgan Robinson played a big part in the Eagles 6-1 victory in the first game of the sereis with her two-run home run in the top of the first inning. The following day in the doubleheader, the Eagles dropped both games, losing 5-4 and 0-2.

After the Eagles did battle with Texas State they stayed in the Longhorn state to take on nationally ranked Texas A&M in a two-game series. Texas A&M swept the series, but the Eagles didn’t shy away from the elite competition.

The first game was a high scoring affair. Texas A&M beat the Eagles in a wild 13-10 contest. Both teams finished the game with a total of 13 hits.

The second game of the series was still a battle between the two teams with a low scoring contest that Texas A&M won 3-2. The first four innings were neck and neck with no scores until the top of the fifth inning when GSU captured a 2-0 lead. Texas A&M bounced back in the bottom sixth inning scoring two runs and one more in the bottom of the seventh inning to come away with the victory.

“We schedule tough opponents like this because we are looking to compete and win. I feel like we competed for all seven innings of both games against them and that’s not something that very many people have done this year,” head coach Annie Smith said.

The Texas road trip continued with a non-conference tournament against Boise State and Texas Tech in the Jeannine McHaney Memorial Classic at Rocky Johnson Field. The Eagles lost 1-4 to Texas Tech in the opening game.

After dropping the opening two games of the Classic, GSU got a chance to avenge their loss against Boise State. They did just that with a 12-9 victory. Both teams went back and forth to either tie the game or take the lead.

The game was tied 8-8 in the top of the fifth and 9-9 at the top of the seventh inning. In the bottom of the seventh The Eagles went on to end the game with a walk off homerun. Alesha Mann stepped up to bat with only one out and two runners on and hit a missile home run just left of straight center field to end the game.

The Eagles then faced Texas Tech in the final game of the Classic. The Red Raiders jumped out to a 4-0 lead early in the first inning and GSU was never able to recover. Texas Tech scored every inning of the game except for the fifth inning.

GSU tried to capitalize on Texas Tech not scoring that inning with a pair of runs off of A.J. Hamilton’s fifth homerun of the season, but it wasn’t enough to slow Texas Tech down for the rest of the game. Texas Tech tallied seven runs in the top of the sixth to put the game out of reach.

“Overall I think we had a very good, productive week,” Smith said. “Obviously we would like to have gotten a couple different results, but I am very pleased with the progress we made on the field and the fight we showed all week long.”

GSU softball team will be looking to bounce back with a win this Wednesday, as they take on Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. The game will be aired at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.