Charleston Falls to No. 3 Georgia; to Face Clemson on Saturday

Charleston Falls to No. 3 Georgia; to Face Clemson on Saturday

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Dylan Smith

ATHENS, Ga. – Charleston (30-29) put forth an incredible effort in its first NCAA postseason appearance since 2005, falling 5-2 to No. 3 seed Georgia (39-18) in the Athens Regional at Jack Turner Stadium on Friday evening.
 
The Cougars will face Clemson (32-21) in an elimination game on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
 
Catcher Leela Langston belted just her second career home run in the CofC’s valiant showing. Freshman Bronwyn Conroy reached base twice with a single and a walk, also notching her 43rd stolen base in the contest. She also scored a run and secured sole possession of fifth on the CAA’s single-season runs leaderboard with 55 tallies.
 
Charleston’s Mackenzie Mathis picked up where she left off from the conference tournament, tossing a pair of scoreless frames and working herself out of bases-loaded trouble in the second inning. The sophomore logged back-to-back outs to open the stanza before Georgia tried to capitalize on three straight singles, all of which remained in the infield. Mathis forced a groundout to shortstop to end the frame and keep the score deadlocked at zero.
 
The Cougs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third. After Conroy drew a nine-pitch walk and swiped second, Langston turned on a 3-2 pitch and belted a two-run blast over the left-field wall.
 
Charleston’s ace continued to attack the zone and keep the Bulldogs off the board over the next two frames. Mathis induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the third inning, only to see the Cougars’ middle infield flip the script with a 4-6-3 twin-killing in the fourth. The right-hander reached 23 straight innings without surrendering a run.
 
Georgia took its first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth, putting a four-spot on the board with a sacrifice fly from Jaydyn Goodwin and back-to-back homers from Sarah Gordon and Gabi Novickas. The Bulldogs added one run in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-2 edge.
 
The Cougars did not go down quietly as Halle Cannon and Sierra Paradis each worked a walk to put runners on first and second. With the tying run at the dish, Georgia halted the threat to secure the win.
 
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