The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/20/09 Section: Sports

GOLER

For a team looking to get some conference wins under its belt, the No. 9 Georgia softball team will be playing the right opponent when it heads to Columbia, S.C., this weekend for a three-game series against struggling South Carolina.

The Gamecocks (13-10, 1-8 SEC) are losers of nine of their last 10 games and are last in the SEC Eastern Division standings.

The Bulldogs (17-4, 1-2 SEC) notched their first conference win this past Saturday at home against LSU, but need to prove they can win conference games away from Athens - something they were unable to do consistently last season.

"We just need to pitch, hit and play defense," senior pitcher Christie Hamilton said. "If we do that, we should be able to beat anyone [regardless of] where we play."

Following their torrid 12-1 start to the season, the Bulldogs have gone 5-3 over their past eight games, including Wednesday's 5-2 win over Kennesaw State.

Sophomore third baseman Alisa Goler and Hamilton were mired in individual slumps of late, and their drop-off in performance was a clear cause for the Bulldogs' recent inefficiency.

In the seven games before Wednesday, Goler batted 2-for-13, a considerable drop-off from the first 13 games of the season when she had a .581 batting average, nine home runs and 36 RBIs.

Hamilton started 6-0 but has lost her last three decisions and given up nine earned runs in her last 15 and one-third innings pitched.

The Dogs need Goler and Hamilton to return to their early season form for a chance to compete in the SEC. And with six conference games over the next eight days, the team knows what is at stake.

"The whole team knows we need to step up [and] get things done during this upcoming stretch," Goler said.

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