By Jeff HawsFor the AJC
ATHENS — For a while Saturday night, it looked as if one pitch was all Georgia would need.
But once the dam broke, Baylor’s offense proved to be too good for that.
Megan Wiggins’ home run on the first pitch from Baylor starter Whitney Canion ended up as the Bulldogs’ only run, and Liz Paul’s pinch-hit single in the sixth put the Bears in front for good in a 5-1 win.
The victory gives Baylor (44-12) a 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 Super Regional series. The winner will advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Paul got the game-winning RBI, but the star of the game may have been Canion, who settled down after the tough start to only allow two more hits and no more runs to the potent Georgia offense, along with hitting a game-tying home run in the fifth.
Canion entered Saturday’s game with a 1.19 ERA — 11th-best nationally — having surrendered only nine home runs in 229 innings. But Wiggins, a senior who has been Georgia’s most consistent hitter this season, went with an outside pitch, flying it well up into one of the trees outside the outfield wall.
It seemed as if it might be a jolt to a Baylor team that has relied heavily on Canion, who tossed the Bears through last week’s regional with three consecutive shutouts.
It took a little while, but Canion was able to take back what she gave, leading off the fifth inning with a long home run to right field, finally getting Baylor on the board and making it a brand new game.
The Bulldogs (50-13) had a pitcher of their own, though, in Morgan Montemayor, who was 3-0 with a 0.44 ERA in their regional sweep.
She worked out of a couple of minor jams and looked to be running smoothly in this one before Canion’s solo shot tied the score. She retired only one batter before being pulled in the sixth, as the Bears’ offense surged past the Bulldogs and took control of the game.
That inning began badly for Georgia and got worse from there.
Megan Turk and Dani Leal led off with back-to-back singles, followed by a Holly Holl sacrifice bunt that moved the runners to second and third with one out.
Consecutive RBI singles by Paul and Kelsi Kettler came next, followed a by one more a few batters later by Kayce Walker. Suddenly, the Bulldogs had gone from up one to down four in a matter of two innings.
The Bulldogs’ three hits were one more than their season low, which occurred March 18 in a 2-1 loss at Alabama.
About the Author
