Grace Connelly’s Home Run Delivers Walk Off Victory Over No. 22 Auburn

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech softball (16-9, 4-2) capped its 14-game home stand with a 5-4 walk off win over No. 22 Auburn (20-5, 0-3 SEC) on Wednesday afternoon. With two outs and trailing by one run, Grace Connelly’s third home run of the season couldn’t have come at a better time as her lone hit of the game lifted the Yellow Jackets to victory over the ranked Tigers.

QUICK HITS

Tech’s Wednesday night walk off win was its sixth walk off victory of the season as well as its second victory of the season against a ranked opponent (5-4 vs. No. 18 Stanford).

Gracyn Tucker recorded her seventh home run of the season in the second inning.

Tucker leads Tech in home runs this season with seven while three other Jackets stand with multiple home runs as well (Connelly, 3; Eliana Gottlieb, 2; Addison Leschber, 2).

The third baseman’s two runs scored on Wednesday mark her fifth game of the season scoring multiple runs.

Both Connelly and Vukadinovich recorded two RBI respectively, bringing Connelly to four multi-RBI games and Vukadinovich to a five multi-RBI games this season.

Freshman Sydnie Watts made her sixth start of the season against Auburn while Maddie Furniss made her eighth appearance and Sophia Voyles made her 12th.

The senior pitcher earned not only her sixth win of the season with Wednesday night’s victory but also her third consecutive win.

Tech boasted a .667 batting average with runners in scoring position while holding Auburn to a .000 batting average in the same position as well as a .125 overall batting average.

The Yellow Jackets advance their series record with the Tigers to 9-6 overall and remain unbeaten at Mewborn Field.

The most recent home victory against Auburn prior to Wednesday night was back in the 2023 season when Tech downed a No. 18 ranked Auburn squad 2-1.

Tech softball hasn’t seen multiple ranked victories in a season since back in the 2022 season when the Yellow Jackets beat No. 25 Notre Dame 9-8 (April 1) and No. 16 Georgia 12-3 in five innings (March 15).

Wednesday night’s victory over No. 22 Auburn is the eighth victory over a ranked opponent under the leadership of head coach Aileen Morales.

In its last 10 contests, Tech holds an 8-2 record with those two losses being against No. 18 Stanford. Eliana Gottlieb (.387), Alyssa Willer (.375), and Gracyn Tucker (.367) hold strong batting averages through the most recent 10 games while six Jackets also boast above a .500 slugging percentage.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Watts began in the circle for Tech and pitched the first 2.0 innings for the Yellow Jackets.

Auburn got on the board with three runs in the first inning after a solo home run over left field and two runs scored off of back-to-back fielders’ choices.

The freshman pitcher was able to get two Tigers out swinging in the top of the second before Tucker brought in Tech’s first run of the game off a solo home run over left center in the bottom half of the inning.

Vukadinovich’s single brought the game within one run as Leschber advanced home from second.

Furniss would relieve Watts to begin the third inning until the Tigers were able to extend their lead to two runs as a pair of walks and a fielder’s choice advanced an Auburn runner home from second. Voyles would be called on to relieve Furniss before Tech went on to get the final out of the inning.

Voyles went on to hold the Tigers at four runs while striking out five batters and surrendering only one hit in her 4.1 total innings pitched.

Vukadinovich’s second single of the game once again kept the Jackets’ offense alive as her hit up the middle advanced Tucker home to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth.

With two outs, Connelly slammed a two-run home run over left center to give Tech the walk off victory.

UP NEXT

Georgia Tech softball will venture out west for its first ACC road contest of the season against the Golden Bears of Cal March 14-16. All three games of the series are set to be streamed on ACCNX.

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

For the latest information on the Georgia Tech softball team, follow us on Twitter (@GaTechSoftball), Facebook, Instagram (@GaTechsoftball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.

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