ATHENS, Ga. – The sixth-ranked Georgia softball team shut out the Murray State Racers, 11-0 in five innings, and the South Dakota Coyotes, 4-0, to open the 2024 season Friday at Jack Turner Stadium.
As a team, Georgia (2-0) hit six home runs in the twin bill while the combo of Shelby Walters and Lilli Backes worked 12 shutout innings in the circle, allowing just five hits and striking out a combined 12 batters Friday.
No. 6 Georgia 11, Murray State 0 (5 inn.)
The Bulldogs scattered 11 hits, nine of which went for extra bases (4 doubles, 5 home runs) against Murray State (0-2) in the opener. Jayda Kearney knocked two home runs while Sara Mosley, Sydney Kuma, and Ellie Armistead went deep as well in the game. Freshman Emily Digby had two hits and drove in four runs while fellow newcomer Sarah Gordon also had two hits with an RBI.
Walters (1-0) pitched a one-hit shutout in the circle. Walters took a no-hitter through four and a third innings in her start. She struck out seven Racers and walked two.
Kuma led off the bottom of the second with the first Georgia home run of the season, this one off the videoboard in right, 1-0 Georgia. Sydney Chambley walked, stole second, and scored on a single back up the middle off the bat of Gordon to widen the lead to 2-0.
Kearney led off the bottom of the third with a solo home run to make it 3-0 Georgia.
The bats came alive in the home half of the fourth. Digby drove in Gordon with a single up the middle, 4-0. Armistead and Mosley knocked back-to-back home runs to lengthen the lead to 7-0. Kearney kept it going with her second home run of the game, 8-0. The Dogs loaded the bases then Digby cleared them with one swing of the bat on a three-run double to left center, 11-0.
The Racers broke up Walters’ no-hit bid with one out in the top of the fifth, but Walters secured the shutout.
No. 6 Georgia 4, South Dakota 0
The A four-run fifth inning lifted Georgia to a 4-0 victory in Friday’s nightcap over South Dakota (0-2). Mosley blasted her second home run of the day and Chambley drove in three runs on a pair of hits in the contest.
Backes (1-0) pitched a seven-inning shutout in her Georgia debut in the circle, allowing four hits. She struck out eight Coyotes and did not allow a baserunner after a leadoff single in the top of the fourth.
Mosley broke the scoreless tie with a two-out solo home run, her second homer of the day, in the bottom of the fifth, 1-0. Chambley knocked a bases-loaded double to clear the bases and widen the lead to 4-0 after five.
The Dogs’ 4-0 lead held as Backes retired the next six Coyote batters in order en route to Georgia’s second shutout of the day.
Georgia returns to action Saturday at day two of the Red & Black Showcase at Jack Turner Stadium. The Bulldogs take on Murray State at 1 p.m. followed by Purdue at 3:30 p.m.
