BOX SCORE

ATLANTA – Two early runs by No. 8 Georgia Tech set the tone and the Jacksonville State softball team couldn't catch up in a 5-3 loss to open the NCAA Atlanta Regional on Friday.

The Yellow Jackets (50-9) plated their first two runners of the game and forced the Gamecocks (30-18) to play catch up the rest of the night. JSU was able to pull to within one twice but could never tie it up. The loss was just the fifth in the last 24 games for the Gamecocks and snapped a seven-game streak.

Senior Hillary Downs tied a school record with two home runs in her 2-for-3 night. The outfielder from Childersburg, Ala., became the 19th player in school history to homer twice in a game and did it for the third time herself.

Seniors Nikki Prier and Mary Beth Ledbetter also notched a pair of hits, while Prier drove in the Gamecocks' other run in JSU's nine-hit outing. The Yellow Jackets got just six hits in the win, but they made them count when they got them. Six players scattered GT's six hits, while four of them drove in a run.

The Yellow Jackets got a pair in the first after a pair of walks that started the frame each led to a run. The Tech pitcher Adkins helped her cause in the second with a leadoff homer to deep left that gave GT a 3-0 lead after two.

The Gamecocks got on the board in the third after taking advantage of a couple of two-out Yellow Jacket walks. Senior Chrissy O'Neal and freshman Kelci Johnston each walked on full-count deliveries to set up an RBI single from Prier.

Downs pulled the Gamecocks to within a run in the fourth with a leadoff blast to straightaway center. The Gamecocks put two more on with one out in the inning but Jessica Coan came on in relief to strike out Tess Echols and O'Neal to get out of the jam.

Shannon Bear made JSU pay in the home half of the frame with a solo homer to left, a one-out blast that stretched the Tech lead back to two at 4-2. Downs cut it again in the top of the sixth with another leadoff blast, this one to the gap in right center, that cut the GT lead to 4-3. Ledbetter singled with two outs and reached second on a misplay by center fielder Christy Jones to chase Coan, but Hope Rush came in and struck out pinch hitter Krystal Ruth to end the Gamecock threat.

Eliasson gave the run right back in the bottom of the sixth, when Jen Yee went the other way with a two-out blast to left. The shot was the Yellow Jackets' third homer of the game, all solo shots, and was Yee's 27th of the season.

O'Neal gave the Gamecocks a chance in the seventh with a leadoff single but Rush didn't allow her past first to earn her second save of the year. Rush allowed just one hit and struck out two in 1 1/3 innings of work. Coan (14-1) earned the win in relief after holding Jax State to a run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings in the circle.

Eliasson (21-8) lost her first decision since March 20 after surrendering five runs on six hits in six innings of work. The Vallejo, Calif., native walked six and fanned four in snapping her streak of 16-straight wins.

The Gamecocks fall into the losers' bracket, where they will face Auburn in an elimination game at 1:30 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will be televised live on ESPN. The Tigers lost a 1-0 decision to Oregon earlier in the day.