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By Jeffrey Weinstein Sports Editor
What began as an emotional day also ended as one for the softball team. No. 22 Georgia Tech finished a three-game sweep of the Eagles at Shea Field, clubbing four home runs en route to a 12-0 five-inning rout.
The Yellow Jackets extended their season-high winning streak to 10 games, and broke their own ACC single-season record for home runs in one season with 76 homers for the year thus far.
For Boston College, it was the team's most lopsided defeat to date.
"We played yesterday well with them, I didn't expect this outcome at all today … Today it was a surprise and they came out and wanted it a lot more than we did, collectively as a team," said BC head coach Jen Finley
Georgia Tech, one of the nation's most prolific offensive teams, quickly jumped out to a big first-inning lead after Jennifer Lee and Whitney Halley hit back-to- back home runs off of BC starter Britney Thompson (5-11), and the Yellow Jackets scored two more runs to make it 5-0.
That lead was all Georgia Tech starter Whitney Humphreys (19-5) would need.
The Eagles got two on base with one out in the bottom half of the first inning, after Jenna Macchi singled, and Ashley Obrest reached base after Yee fumbled a ground ball.
Macchi and Obrest both advanced into scoring position after a passed ball, but Humphries got BC's best hitter, Thompson, to ground harmlessly to first, and Renee Ramos flew out to left to end the threat.
Sophomore lefthander Savana Lloyd relieved Thompson in the second inning.
After striking out the first batter she faced, Lloyd ran into some trouble, allowing a single, and then a Savannah Brown two-run home run to right center field to give the Yellow Jackets a 7-0 lead.
Freshman right hander Taylor Payton relieved Lloyd, but didn't fare much better than her predecessor. Payton walked a batter, struck out Kristina Hull, and then allowed a line drive home run to Brittany Barnes that curled just around the left-field foul pole to make it 9-0 Georgia Tech, before inducing a groundout to end the inning.
Humphries continued to cruise with an array of off speed pitches, inducing an inning ending double play from Peyton in the second inning, and retiring the Eagles in order in the third before leaving the game.
Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets continued to add to their lead. In the third inning, Aileen Morales, led off with a double, and Yee drove her home with a sharply hit single to right field.
After Whitney Heller blooped a single that barely eluded the dive of Eagles rightfield Amanda Booth, Brown, the Yellow Jacket's hottest hitter, was walked to load the bases.
Caitlin Lever, the ACC leader in batting average, hit a sacrifice fly to deep left, and Yee tagged to make it 11-0 with only one out in the inning.
After Kristina Hull lined a single to left field to load the bases again, Barnes drove another run home with another sacrifice fly to left field to make it 12-0, before Peyton got the last out of the inning on a fly to left field.
After the game, Finley held a team meeting in the center field grass that lasted over 30minutes, before the players were finally dispersed to the stands, where they greeted their parents outside the field.
"We just had the team meeting to figure out exactly where we're at, and what we wanted to accomplish the rest of the season," said Finley.
Seniors Amanda Brooks, Thompson, Macchi, and Obrest and their parents were honored before the game with flowers, and their numbers were painted onto the right field wall.
On Saturday, the Eagles were narrowly edged in the first two games of the series with Georgia Tech by scores of 4-3 and 6-3.
The first loss was perhaps the toughest of the season for the Eagles.
With Georgia Tech leading 2-1going into the bottom half of the third inning, BC tied the score after Maccchi's long fly out to left with the bases loaded was deep enough to score Carley McNary.
Ramos then slammed her second solo home run of the game in the bottom half of the fifth inning to put the Eagles ahead.
For BC, Britney Thompson was one out away from completing an impressive complete game, but Yee and Haller slammed back-to-back home runs to give Georgia Tech a 4-3 lead in dramatic fashion.
"Losing a game like that [is] very deflating. It's happened to us a few times this year in the ACC, and it's really tough mentally to bounce back from that," said Finley.
In the second game of the double header, after Georgia Tech scored an early run on a sacrifice fly from Savannah Brown, Yellow Jackets' starting pitcher Sarah Wood, and BC starter Taylor Peyton locked into a pitcher's duel, matching zeros for four innings.
Georgia Tech would break the game open in the top of the sixth inning, scoring four runs on back-to-back home runs by Kristina Hull and Brittany Barnes to take a 5-0 lead. After Morales homered in the top of the sixth to make it 6-0, the Eagles rallied with back-to-back-to-back home runs by Thompson, Ramos, and Destito.
But Wood retired the final two outs of the seventh inning to preserve the 6-3 win for the Yellow Jackets.
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