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In the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs, Angie Ramos stepped up to the plate for her first at bat of the contest. Still searching for her first home run of the season, she thrashed the second pitch she faced down the third base line. Though, the ground ball was easily taken care of by the Yellow Jackets’ infield for the final out, sealing the win for GT.

In its home opener against Georgia Tech (23-12, 9-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), Syracuse’s (14-14, 2-8 ACC) infield defense was worn down by the Yellow Jackets’ lineup and fell into a 5-1 hole that it could not recover from.

Madison Knight lost control of her first pitch and hit leadoff batter Ella Edgmon. She quickly recovered though, forcing back-to-back fly and foul outs from Madison Dobbins and Mallorie Black to close the top of the first frame.

But this opening-inning mistake from Knight only foreshadowed what was to come on the defensive side for SU.

For the next inning and a half the contest remained scoreless, with the lone hit being a Madelyn Lopez bunt for a single. In the top of the third, however, Georgia Tech built its lead and exposed Syracuse’s infield, an advantage Georgia Tech didn’t stop growing until the end of the sixth inning.

Gracie Hillman walked and stole second to lead off the third for GT. Dobbins followed this up with a single to left field. SU’s outfield was late on the throw to second, and she was safe. The throw to home plate directly after also was not in time and Hillman slid home for the game’s first score. Black added on with a base hit of her own, and yet again the Orange were too slow throwing the ball within the infield. This allowed Dobbins to make her way home and suddenly it was 2-0 Georgia Tech.

Just as it had done in the third, the Yellow Jackets continued to take advantage of SU’s miscommunications fielding the ball. With Jin Sileo on second, Abby Hughes tacked on yet another base hit for GT, enough for Sileo to score.

”I don’t think they hit anything really hard, I think they were just dinks and dunks over our infield,” Knight said. “When a dink and dunk results in two runs, you have to just brush those off and focus on the next pitch from there.”

In the bottom of the fourth, Makenzie Foster slammed a single to right field, cutting the Orange’s deficit to just two. But the celebrations were short lived for SU, as the Yellow Jackets punched back in the fifth with a run of their own. With Edgmon poised to sprint home on third, Knight released a heater that grazed the shoulder of Laila Morales-Alves. After scrambling for the ball, she finally regained possession but it was too late — Edgmon had already slid home for another unearned run for GT, which now held a 4-1 lead.

“This season it’s been one pitch at a time both offensively and defensively,” Knight said. “We’re overcompensating the box right now by trying to do multiple things at one time and not keeping things simple.”

While SU’s offense remained stagnant, Georgia Tech tested the Syracuse infield. To start off the sixth, Reese Hunter doubled and Sileo singled, enough for a pinch-running Brionna Condon to round the bases and record the fifth run for the Yellow Jackets, extending the lead to a 5-1.

By the time the final batter was retired, SU’s defense had surrendered at least one hit to six different Georgia Tech batters and an RBI to four of them. In a contest where Syracuse needed its offense to respond to a potent GT batting order, it was kept in check by Sophia Voyles and Makayla Coffield.

Turning around the sloppy defensive mistakes that proved costly in game one of the series could be key for SU with a series win still in play.

“We just need to use this game as motivation for the next two,” Knight said.

Published on March 28, 2024 at 11:47 pm

Contact Matthew: mgray06@syr.edu