Softball Drops NCAA Opener to #14 Georgia

The Central Connecticut softball team opened play in the 2015 NCAA Tournament with a 6-1 loss at #14 Georgia on Friday.  Central will now face the University of North Carolina in the first elimination game of the Athens Regional on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

With the loss the Blue Devils drop to 31-13 on the season.  The Bulldogs move to 41-14 overall with the victory, and will play Western Kentucky at noon on Saturday in the winner's bracket game.

Central took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when junior second baseman Katie Schmidt launched her first home run of the season off of Georgia starting pitcher Chelsea Wilkerson.

"I just went up there thinking she's not going to beat me. I'm going to hit the ball. I don't care where I hit it, but I'm going to hit it hard. I didn't even know the ball went out the park until I was rounding second base and coach Bre's [Breanne Gleason] just clapping and I had no idea what was going on. Definitely a great time for my first home run."

Senior pitcher Laura Messina didn't allow a hit until the third inning, when she allowed three, and the Bulldogs tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left field with the bases loaded.

Georgia opened it up in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring five runs off of Messina and the Blue Devils, including a pair of home runs.  Georgia's #3 batter Alex Hugo connected for the first and Maeve McGuire hit the second in the inning for the Bulldogs.

- On whether they considered walking Alex Hugo in the 6th inning -
Coach Gleason: "It was kind of pick your poison and I'll go with this one [Messina] any day against anybody. Hugo won that one, but she [Messina] won the rest of them."

Laura Messina: "I honestly didn't realize until she hit it and somebody said, 'Oh, yeah, she's hit 19 home runs.' I was like, 'Oh! I feel less bad about that now!' (jokingly). In a tight game like that though I should have gotten the ball off the plate more. It's just really me thinking more instead of not wanting to put her on base."

Central had five hits in the game, two of them coming from Schmidt, including her first home run of her career.  Messina picked up the loss in the circle, allowing six earned runs and 13 hits.  She had two strikeouts and now has 994 for her career with the Blue Devils.

Freshman Brittany Camara, junior Eileen Purcell and classmate Hannah Cooper all had hits in the loss.  Chelsea Wilkerson picked up the win for Georgia, pitching seven innings and striking out 12 CCSU batters.

"I think we played a great game. We fought hard. For those first five innings we looked really good. With a team that's as athletic as they are, that's going to happen, and I thought we gave them a great game and we put it all out there." - Head Coach Bre Gleason on the teams performance.

The Blue Devils will play on Saturday vs. North Carolina, who lost 2-1 to Western Kentucky in the first game of the Regional on Friday.  Game time is 2:30 p.m.