The Gophers continued a 36-game road slate with four games over the weekend in Athens, Ga., and came out with three victories.
It almost was two victories for the team, but in the seventh inning with two outs and two on, senior catcher Taylor LeMay came to the plate. She hit a three-run home run to lift No. 20 Minnesota 4-3 over No. 9 Georgia.
The Gophers (13-5) defeated Western Carolina on Saturday and then lost to the Bulldogs before defeating Jacksonville and Georgia on Sunday.
“We’re getting a little bit better every week,” head coach Jessica Allister said. “We’re a better team than we were last week; we were a better team last week than we were the week before, and that’s always the goal.”
Minnesota (13-5) scored six runs in the second inning in its first game on Saturday against Western Carolina to take control early, and ended with a 7-1 victory.
The team then played Georgia for the first time during the weekend, and saw a 4-1 lead become a 5-5 tie in the sixth inning. The Bulldogs then hit a walk-off double in the seventh to win 6-5.
If the Gophers had any leftover frustration from the late loss, it showed early on Sunday.
The team scored a program-record 20 runs against Jacksonville in its victory, with 17 coming in the first inning.
Minnesota then started its rematch with Georgia, and the Bulldogs went up 3-0 in the fifth inning.
The Gophers still trailed by two and were down to their last out when LeMay came to the plate. When her at-bat was over, Minnesota had the lead.
“The first part of that at-bat I was down 0-2, so I knew I had to get a hit or walk or the game was over,” LeMay said. “I guess you could see it as pressure or opportunity in a game like that, and I just got a good pitch to hit, hit the ball and got all that I could ask for.”
The Gophers held on from there for the upset victory.
“We kept chipping away and kept our energy up,” sophomore Erika Rozell said.
