March 20, 2003
ATLANTA – Winners of six of its last seven games, the Georgia Tech softball team (19-12) hosts the 2003 Buzz Classic this weekend at the Al Bishop Softball Complex in Marietta. This weekend’s 18-team event, which opens Friday, is the 11th edition of the annual tournament.
Pool play opens at Noon Friday with four games and concludes with Saturday’s 4 p.m. contests. Each team is scheduled to play four pool games, with the top 12 squads advancing to bracket play, opening Saturday at 7 p.m. The top four seeds will receive a bye into the quarterfinal round, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sunday. The tournament’s title game will be played at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Admission for adults is $5 for a one-day pass, $8 for a two-day pass and $13 for a three-day pass. For children and students (ages 6-17), a one-day pass is $3, a two-day pass is $5 and a three-day pass is $8. Children under age six may enter free of charge.
Highlighting the field this year will be four Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Joining the Jackets in Marietta will be 17th-ranked Florida State (19-9), Maryland (6-7) and North Carolina (18-13).
The Jackets open the tourney against the Terps at 2 p.m. Friday, followed by a 5 p.m. meeting with Lipscomb (12-8). Tech closes out pool play Saturday against Troy State (13-12) at Noon and Radford (5-15) at 2 p.m. The Jackets own a 4-0 record this season against teams in the field, having swept doubleheaders from Troy State and Princeton.
Last time out for Tech, the Jackets split a doubleheader with Arkansas Tuesday. Tech took game one, 3-2, on a walk-off homer by senior second baseman Felicia Coursey in the bottom of the seventh, but the Lady Razorbacks bounced back with a 3-2 victory of their own the second game.
Coursey leads the Jackets with a .320 average and 31 hits, while junior Tara Knudsen (5 HR, 15 RBI) and senior Lindsay Wood (4 HR, 17 RBI) rank as the Jackets’ top run producers. Sophomore Jessica Sallinger, who is 11-8 with a 1.41 earned run average and 162 strikeouts in 109.1 innings, has been Tech’s top pitcher this season.
A year ago at the Buzz, Tech went 4-0 in pool play and defeated Maryland in the quarterfinals before falling to Ohio State in the semis. The Buckeyes went on to capture the 2002 Buzz Classic with a title game victory over North Carolina.
A full schedule of the tournament and directions to the Al Bishop complex are available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
PAST BUZZ CLASSIC WINNERS1993 - Georgia State1994 - Nicholls State1995 - Nicholls State1996 - No winner (rain)1997 - Utah1998 - Illinois-Chicago1999 - Southern Mississippi2000 - Florida Atlantic2001 - California2002 - Ohio State
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