A Look Back At The 2008 Season
May 20, 2008 | Softball
The 2008 Gardner-Webb softball team will be remembered over the years for many reasons. For one, the squad competed in the school's final year of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Another reason is head coach Tom Cole's seniors on the team etched their names in GWU lore, having re-written the school's record book. The team will also be remembered for knocking off NCAA Tournament bound Notre Dame and Winthrop as well as dropping heartbreakers to the No. 1 seed in the tournament, Florida, and to another NCAA Tournament team - Auburn.
However, one of the brightest memories for the 2008 GWU softball
team had to come in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. After
earning just the No. 6 seed, the Bulldogs had a tough challenge
ahead of them – as they took on a Lipscomb team that swept the
Red and Black in Boiling Springs, N.C., earlier in the season.
This time would be a different story. In the second game of the
day, in the opening round, Cole's team felt confident against
hard-hitting Lipscomb. However, the Lady Bisons got on the board in
the in the second for a quick 1-0 lead. The never quit mentality of
the Bulldogs, which had been felt throughout the stands the
previous year at the A-Sun Tournament, was alive once again. Senior
Jessi Williams smacked a leadoff homerun in the fourth to tie the
contest at 1-1. In the same inning, newcomer Ashley Whitlock earned
a walk, which drove in Christa Fullwood for the go-ahead run. In
the fifth, Melody Harrell belted a solo blast for a 3-1 lead and
the Bulldogs held on for a 3-2 win over the top seed. It was the
first time in a decade the No. 1 seed had lost in the opening round
of tournament play. Although the Bulldogs did not win the A-Sun
Tournament in its last year, they changed the outcome of the
postseason.
GWU was battle tested coming into the season, having five experienced seniors on the team. Those five – Taryn Beck, Lindsay Cox, Kelly Linsley, Haley Scism and Williams – helped the Bulldogs open up the season 2-0 by downing Furman and Marshall. In the third game of the 2008 campaign, the Bulldogs attempted to slay the Tigers of Auburn in Auburn, Ala. After an early run by the Tigers, Cox reached on an Auburn miscue and scored on another error after Harrell reached base safely. However, the Bulldogs fell just short as the Tigers scored another run in the sixth to win 3-2.
Upon completion of the tournament, the Bulldogs came home and split a pair of games before heading back on the road, this time to Gainesville, Fla., where the team competed in the Aquafina Invitational. In the first game, Harrell opened up some eyes as she recorded a leadoff homer against Notre Dame. Two innings later, Angie Walls' single to left drove home Mandy Ward and Haley Scism for a 3-0 advantage. The Fighting Irish would plate two in the sixth, but Beck tossed a complete game en route to the win.
Three games later, the Bulldogs would get another crack at then-No. 7 Florida. GWU spotted the Gators a 3-0 advantage in the third frame before coming back to make a game of it. In the fourth, Williams got things going with a single. She moved to third on Ward's hit and came home on Scism's sacrifice fly. In the fifth, rookie Kelsey Witter recorded her first collegiate homerun – of the two-run variety – to knot the contest at 3-3. However, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Florida was able to push across the game-winning run.
Close losses hurt the Bulldogs for much of the season as the team dropped 13 one-run contests and four by two runs. In just about every one of the games, GWU was ahead in the late innings.
However, there were some thrilling close wins as well. One of which was a win over future Big South foe Presbyterian. In that contest, Whitlock picked up her first career hit - a pinch hit round-tripper.
Despite the fact the Bulldogs will lose the five seniors due to graduation, GWU returns a talented group of student-athletes for the first season of competition in the Big South.
As Beck, Cox, Linsley, Scism and Williams instilled an overall winning way into the program, the Bulldogs will have to learn to become winners in the Big South. With two seniors - Walls and Adrienne Smith, who each played valuable roles in 2008 - back in the line-up in addition to an extremely talented junior class that is comprised of six players, the Red and Black once again have experienced upperclassmen.
In the circle, GWU boasts eight game winner Christine Murray and
sophomore Cindy Boomhower, who was one out short of qualifying for
the fewest walks per seven innings in the NCAA - a stat she would
have ranked seventh in. The returning outfielders have solid arms
and have great speed while the infielders are battle tested. Behind
the plate, Ward caught nearly every inning in 2008 and carried a
big bat to the plate. Although it is hard to watch the 2008 class
leave the Bulldogs' program, the five made it better now than when
it was prior to their arrival, which is all one could ask.
