Kennesaw shocked as Lady Bobcats win the tournament

By Ryan Schomber
Staff Writer

The Lady Bobcats had a lot of reasons to feel good about themselves after winning the Kennesaw State Tournament over the last weekend.
After losing to Texas A&M-Kingsville 9-0, the team did not exactly have the momentum they were looking for going into the tournament.
In the first game, the Lady Bobcats captured a 8-0 five-inning victory over Lander. Cathy Chandler tossed a complete game four-hitter to earn her first win of the season.
Junior Kristin Hughes led a 14-hit attack after going 3-4 with a home run and 2 RBI. Nickie Black went 3-4; Rebecca Heinicka and Rebecca Schweitzer each went 2-3 with one RBI.
The Lady Bobcats lost their next game 9-1 in five innings to #15 Southern Illinios-Edwardsville, then they lost to Texas A&M Kingsville 3-2 in eight innings. After the first day of the tournament, GC&SU’s Lady Bobcats were only 1-2 after the first day, but better things were instore for this team.
“Saturday we played great, we played really bad on Friday but then again on Saturday we were loose and ready to win,” said Head Coach Windy Thees.
After losing two in a row, the Lady Bobcats opened the second day of the tournament with an 11-3 victory over Texas Women’s University.
GC&SU set a school record with five home runs in the game. Hughes had an outstanding day. She broke an individual school record with two home runs in the game, and now she already has broken the school single season record with four long balls already this season.
“Kristin saw the ball really good even when she didn’t get a hit, and she did some good things,” said Thees
Hughes was not yet done setting school records; after going 4-5 at the plate, she set a school record with five RBI’s.
Also, Joni Frei, Heinicka and Schweitzer all homered for GC&SU. Chandler (2-0) pitched for her second win in as many chances after allowing three unearned runs on four hits in four innings of work.
In their second game of the day, GC&SU scored five runs in their final two at-bats to rally for a 6-3 eight-inning upset of #15 ranked Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in the semifinals.
Jennifer Joiner (3-1) picked up the win for the Lady Bobcats after holding SUIE to one run on three hits with 4 strikeouts in five innings of relief. Hughes was again on fire after going 3-4 with one RBI at the plate. Melanie Cannon had a good day after she went 2-3 with one RBI to help lead GC&SU at the plate.
In the championship game, freshman Brook Harrison (2-1) got the win. She pitched great in 4.1 innings of relief; she only allowed one earned run, two hits with a strikeout and walked only three batters.
“Throughout the year our pitching staff has done a good job of putting the ball where it needs to be, and errors end up hurting us in the long run,” said Thees.
After breaking a 1-1 tie with a run in the top of the seventh, Kennesaw was ready for the win, but GC&SU had one more comeback in their tanks.
The Lady Bobcats scored a pair of runs in their last at- bat thanks to an error, allowing the team to upset #3 Kennesaw State. Joni Frei came across the plate as the game’s winning run.
Most important for the Lady Bobcats was the fact that they were able to beat the Lady Owls for the first time in 28 meetings.
The Lady Bobcats will now begin playing games in their Peach Belt Conference, which could very mean a lot of trouble of their opponents.
Kristin Hughes played great the entire tournament, so come to West Complex and watch her and the Lady Bobcats destroy conference rivals all season long. The team will be at home again Friday, March 8th, when they play Georgia Southwestern at 5:00 p.m.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 22 2002. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry