The Red and Black

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Sports

GASKILL

The Georgia softball team (12-4) is excited to be back in Athens for the fifth annual Georgia Softball Classic, after a difficult road trip to the West Coast last weekend in which it faced four nationally ranked teams.

Head coach Lu Harris-Champer said facing the ranked opponents really helped the team improve and get ready for the rest of the season, and playing at home will be a huge relief.

"It really helped us prepare for conference play, as well as this weekend's tournament." she said. "We are so happy to be playing back at home. We have a beautiful stadium, will [be] playing in front of family people and friends in the community. It will be a lot of fun."

The Bulldogs will play six games in three days, facing Longwood University (5-3), Butler (0-0) and Michigan State (4-5) two times each.

Harris-Champer said she is pleased with the play of the young team to begin the season, which starts six freshmen and has three seniors.

"We are just going to keep doing what we have been doing. We will take it game by game," she said.

Kate Gaskill is leading the pitching staff with a 5-1 record and a 1.06 ERA, while Christie Hamilton supports a 5-1 record as well to go along with 44 strikeouts and three complete games.

Offensively, the Bulldogs have a .271 team batting average, led by Hamilton and Kristin Schnake who have .389 and .356 averages, respectively. Senior Melissa Wood leads the team with 13 RBI.

Although the Bulldogs are not playing the caliber of opponents as it did in the previous tournament, Harris-Champer said it cannot take any of the opponents lightly.

"We have to go out and work hard and do the best we can."

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