April 6, 1999

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech's softball team will look for more consistent play this week as it hosts Georgia Southern and travels to Maryland and Virginia for an Atlantic Coast Conference road trip. Tech, which is currently 17-21 overall, started 0-2 in the ACC after dropping a doubleheader to Florida State last weekend.

The Yellow Jackets welcome Georgia Southern to Glenn Field Wednesday for a 3 p.m. doubleheader, and then travel to Maryland Friday for a single game at 4 p.m. Tech and Terrapins will tangle in a single game Saturday at 1 p.m, and the Jackets travel to Virginia Sunday for a doubleheader starting at noon. It is an important stretch for Tech as it tries to climb the ACC standings.

"We need to play more consistently and put our hitting, pitching and defense together all at the same time," said head coach Kate Madden, who is in her first year as the head coach at Tech. "We definitely need to play better in the areas of pitching and defense and especially with a tough ACC road trip this weekend."

The Jackets will be trying to rebound from a pair of ACC loses to Florida State last Saturday. The Lady Seminoles won 7-0 and 8-5, but the Yellow Jackets showed promise while shutting out FSU through five innings in the first contest and rallying for five runs to cut the score to 6-5 after six innings in the second game. However, a error in the top of the seventh inning cost Tech its momentum and allowed two unearned runs to score for the Lady Seminoles. The Jackets showed a good sign for the future totaling 15 hits in the doubleheader.

"Our hitting has made great strides this year," said Madden. "However, we are not hitting at the right times, such as with runners in scoring position and in two-out situations. Some good signs are that we have only been shut out twice this year and have the conference's RBI leader. We just need to score at the right times and be able to drive in more runners in tough situations."

Tech is currently leading the ACC in batting as a team with a .304 collective batting average. The Jackets have three individual hitters among the top seven batters in the league and the squad leads the league in runs per game with a 4.73 average.

Catcher Anne Knobbe (Brea, Calif.) is second in the conference with a .387 batting average and she leads the league with 42 RBI. In the second game against Florida State, she connected on a three-run homerun to give her 42 RBI and set a new season record, surpassing Stephanie Weitman's previous record of 41 set in 1995. Tech's career homerun leader, she has knocked out six this season and has extended her all-time total to 19.

Junior left fielder Heather Sumrow (Humble, Texas), has returned from an ankle injury and went 4-for-6 at the plate against FSU to raise her batting average to .374. Junior center fielder Lauren Schwartz (Atlanta, Ga.) is batting .341 and leads the team in stolen bases having successfully stolen in 15 of 16 attempts. Also batting over .300 is freshman right fielder Kori Jacobson (Chandler, Ariz.), who is hitting .325 and is second on the squad in RBI with 21.

After returning home, Tech hosts Samford April 13 and travels to Georgia on April 14.