Courtesy of Baylor Athletics
THE RUNDOWN
ATHENS, Ga. – In a heavy weight battle, Baylor and Georgia exchanged punches, but the Lady Bears advanced to their third Women’s College World Series with a 6-3 win over the Bulldogs Saturday at Jack Turner Stadium.
Baylor (47-14), the No. 13 seed, trailed 3-2 headed into the bottom of the fifth inning before Linsey Hays hit the go-ahead two-run homer deep over the rightfield wall that proved to be the game winner. As has been done her whole career, Whitney Canion battled through a 169-pitch effort to pick up her 31st win of the season and help carry the Lady Bears to their third WCWS appearance since 2007.
The last time BU went to Oklahoma City was also via Athens, Georgia when Baylor beat the Bulldogs in three games. This time, after Baylor’s 9-1 win Friday, the Lady Bears closed the door in two games, once again on the road, stunning the No. 4 seeded Bulldogs.
Georgia scored a run in the first, fourth and fifth innings and threatened all afternoon long, but in the end Canion stranded 12 UGA base runners nixing any big innings.
Canion scattered eight hits, walked five and struck out seven to tie Cristin Vitek’s (2004) and her own (2011) single-season record for 31 wins in a season.
Baylor added the final nail in the coffin scoring two runs on three Georgia (49-15) errors in the bottom of the sixth as the game became unraveled for the Bulldogs.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Baylor will be making its third WCWS appearance in school history adding to the 2007 and 2011 teams’ resume for teams that punched tickets to Oklahoma City.
- Whitney Canion picked up her 31st win of the season, which tied a single-season record for wins withCristin Vitek (2004), and Canion had 31 wins in 2011.
- Linsey Hays’ home run was her second career postseason homer, and it was her 13th of the season, which leads the team.
- Hays’ multi-hit game was the 18th game of the season she’s had two or more hits.
- Hays’ 48 RBI through Saturday is the sixth-best single-season total in school history for a Baylor player.
- Kaitlyn Thumann had her first hit of the Super Regional and extended her on-base streak to a season-high 26 games.
- Ari Hawkins put together her third consecutive multi-hit game of the postseason with a pair of singles, and it gave her 20 games in 2014 with multiple hits.
- Baylor is 33-19 all-time in the postseason after Saturday’s win, 7-6 in NCAA Super Regional games, and now leads the all-time series 4-3 with Georgia.
- Baylor is 3-4 all-time in WCWS games.
