ATHENS — The next chapter in the Clean Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry will be written Tuesday evening at Georgia’s Jack Turner Softball Stadium.
The No. 15 Bulldogs (22-3, 2-1 SEC) will play host to Georgia Tech (15-8, 0-6 ACC) in a game set to get underway at 6 p.m. It’s the first of what will be a 10-game homestand for Georgia. Admission is free.
Georgia has dominated the softball series with Tech. The Bulldogs lead it 33-10 – 17-4 in Athens – and have won 13 consecutive dating to 2013. But before that, it was an unpredictable matchup.
The Yellow Jackets have been somewhat unpredictable lately. Tech got off to a 15-2 start this year, the best for the program since the 2010 Yellow Jackets started 20-2 on the way to regular-season and ACC Tournament titles. But they come in having lost their first six ACC games.
In UGA, the Jackets are expected to encounter a team that is knocking the cover off the ball. The Bulldogs slugged 16 home runs in five games of the Bulldog Classic on March 4-6. Their penchant for going deep has continued since then, adding eight in last weekend’s series at South Carolina and moving Georgia up to third nationally with an average of 1.92 homers per game. The Bulldogs’ team slugging percentage of .687 is second only to Oklahoma nationally.
Jayda Kearney’s star has continued to rise with Georgia. The sophomore from Columbus, N.J., was named the SEC and DI Louisville Slugger/NFCA Player of the Week after hitting .727 (8-for-11) and slugging 2.000 in five games of the Bulldog Classic. She hit four home runs and a triple, recorded 22 total bases, drove in 12 runs and scored six times.
The Bulldogs have been clearing the bases a lot. Led by sophomore Sydney Chambley with nine round-trippers, Georgia has hit 48 homers and driven in 183 runs.
Tech can hit the ball as well. Graduate Tricia Awald has gotten a hit in 16 games and reached base in Tech’s first 19 games this season. She’s reached in 21 of the Jackets’ 23 games this season and currently ranks 15th in the country and first in the ACC in on-base percentage (.581).
Junior catcher Emma Kauf comes to Athens 18th in the NCAA and leading the ACC in doubles (8). She also leads the squad and is fifth in the ACC with 25 hits.
Like Tech, Georgia opened the season on a hot streak. The Bulldogs strung together a 16-game win streak from Feb. 19 to March 12, which was the sixth longest in program history, Georgia’s longest win streak of 25 games was set in 2001-02 and matched in 2018.
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