APSU Lady Govs fall to Georgia and Jacksonville at Georgia Softball Classic

APSU Sports Information

Athens, GA – Austin Peay State University’s softball team, dropped its third one-run decision of the year, Saturday in the second day of the 13th Annual Georgia Softball Classic, with Jacksonville winning on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, after the Lady Govs had dropped a 17-8 slugfest against #9-ranked Georgia to open the day.

The Lady Govs (2-11) had battled back to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the sixth inning, but Victoria Brown led off the bottom of the eighth with her third home run of the season to give the Dolphins (11-7) the win and extending Austin Peay’s losing streak to 10 games.

Austin Peay had tied the game in the top of the sixth inning on a two-run single up the middle by Danielle Liermann – scoring Chandler Groves and Kacy Acree – who had reached on a double and a single to open the inning.

Groves, Acree and Liermann had two hits each for Austin Peay, while Kendall Vedder led the Lady Govs with three hits.

The Lady Govs also had a chance to take the lead in the top of the seventh inning, loading the bases with one out, but Vinchenzia DiBenedetto was thrown out at the plate after trying to tag up and score on a fly ball to left field off the bat of Liermann.

Austin Peay had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI double by Liermann, but saw Jacksonville respond with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

In Game 1, #9 Georgia (17-1) had exploded out to a 12-1 lead after three innings, with Austin Peay’s lone run coming on an RBI single by DiBenedetto in the top of the second inning, scoring Christiana Gable – who doubled — just missed a home run off the top of the wall.

DiBenedetto, Vedder and Mel Pavel finished with two hits each.

But it was the top of the fourth inning that put a shock into the Bulldogs, with Austin Peay scoring six times, highlighted by a three-run homer by Liermann that made it a 12-7 game at that point.

Rikki Arkansas, Groves and Acree also had RBI in the inning for the Lady Govs.

But the Lady Govs couldn’t slow the Georgia bats, with the Bulldogs answering with five runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to push their lead back out to 17-7.

Austin Peay would close out the game’s scoring with an RBI single by DiBenedetto in the top of the fifth for the 17-8 final.

The Lady Govs close out play in the classic on Sunday, 9:30am, versus Western Carolina.