Aileen Morales knows about the streak. Just don’t talk to her about it.
“I have a thing in my head how sports info and communication love to try to jinx us out of ‘em. So I don’t say it. We don’t talk about it with the team,” Morales said about Georgia Tech softball’s 15 wins in a row. “We just mention great things we’ve done, and we keep on rolling.
“It’s like when someone is throwing a no-hitter, you don’t say they’re throwing a no-hitter. We leave that to the communications department to try to jinx us, and we’ll just worry about winning each inning.”
On Wednesday, Morales and her Yellow Jackets (18-7), winners of 15 consecutive, head to Athens for a showdown with rival Georgia. The Bulldogs (20-3), expectedly, are ranked as high as sixth in the national polls. Tech, somewhat unexpectedly, entered the Softball America Top 25 this week at No. 25.
It’s the first time the Jackets have been ranked in 12 years.
“Do I think that they’re performing and playing at a very high level right now? Absolutely. I think the way we’re swinging it and pitching and playing right now is pretty solid,” Morales said. “Do I think that the skill and the players that we have (that being ranked) is something we were capable of? Yes. Did I think they would be on such a hot streak that we’re on right now? Maybe not necessarily.
“It’s cool to see them playing well together and just playing really great team softball. That’s been fun, and it’s been fun to coach when you’re on the right side of a lot of those games.”
Morales, in her seventh season leading the Jackets, brought in three new assistant coaches in the offseason (including Buford High grad Kelsey Bennett) to try to help push her team to another level. Tech had made an NCAA Regional in 2022, but injuries and inconsistencies left Tech out of the postseason in 2023.
But a good core of Tech’s team was back, and that’s why Morales loaded the front end of Tech’s schedule, a tactic Morales said was done on purpose to challenge her team ahead of an always-tough ACC slate. The Jackets lost to Alabama (twice), Stanford, LSU and Northwestern while limping to a 3-7 start.
On Feb. 21 though, Tech broke a four-game losing streak with a win over Georgia State at home. The Jackets haven’t lost since. The 15-game win streak includes conference sweeps of Pittsburgh at home and North Carolina State on the road.
Morales attributed much of the success to chemistry and her players’ acceptance of doing whatever is best for the team from day to day.
“I think that they’ve just done such a great job of being bought in to whatever the role is for that day and being supportive and great teammates. I think that’s been huge,” she said. “It’s not any one person. It’s a collective team effort, and they’ve really bought into that team identity with that. It’s been a lot of fun just seeing different people show up and stand up and be great at different times.”
From the circle, Tech has relied on a quartet of arms who all have at least 10 appearances and at least four wins. Junior Kinsey Norton has a 2.12 ERA, junior Sophia Voyles is holding opponents to a .215 average, senior Blake Neleman has struck out a team-high 38 hitters and senior Chandler Dennis has three saves.
Tech’s offense is led by senior Mallorie Black’s .434 average, junior Madison Dobbins’ 34 RBIs and senior Sara Beth Allen’s .910 slugging percentage. Black, Dobbins and Allen all have nine home runs each. Morales said perhaps the team’s unsung offensive hero, however, is leadoff hitter junior Ella Edgemon, who has an on-base percentage of .521 and who has stolen eight bases.
It has all led to the program’s second longest win streak in its history (the Jackets won 19 consecutive in 2007) and first national ranking since 2012. Whether that streak continues this week, Tech still has its main mission in front of it.
“Our goal is to be competing for a conference championship. At the end of the day that’s the No. 1 goal,” Morales said. “As we get into these six more weeks of conference play, can we continue to find different ways to win? Can we continue to be successful when we face different offenses, different arms? Obviously, the goal is always to make it to postseason and further. But right now, we’re so early in the season it’s just about getting better each time.”
After its 6 p.m. Wednesday tilt with Georgia, Tech hosts Notre Dame for a three-game series and then has a nine-game road stretch to end March with matchups at Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, North Carolina, Kennesaw State and Syracuse, respectively.
But first the Jackets have a rivalry to attend to, a rivalry with a bit more oomph in 2024 than in seasons past.
“How cool to have a Top 25 matchup going down in our state?” Morales said. “And how big is that for our state to have a matchup of that caliber?”
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